Attempts against right to expression freedom

National
There would be restriction to the expression freedom
The ACTA attempts against right to expression freedom
By: Carlos Damián July 25, 2012
This agreement will affect to the transition of the country to a " information society"
Mexico. - In September of the last year, the Senate demanded to the president Felipe Calderon not to sign the Agreement Commercial against the Falsification (ACTA), based on a wide study accomplished during more than a year by a plural group of legislators, the one which concluded that that treaty attempts against rights established in the Constitution, is opposed to other laws, as that of Author Law, and of be applied would derive in a censorship to the contents from Internet , and consequently, to a restriction from the expression freedom.

In the conclusions of the work of that group of legislators is emphasized that the arrangements of the agreement so they vulnerable not guilty presumption, "that it must be present in all the Mexican legal system" and gives to the suppliers of the service of Internet powers to act as authority de facto and to intervene the privacy of the user by presumed copyrights violation. Also, they concluded, it puts on risk the development of the legitimate cultural electronic trade and as a rule limits "the universality of the access of the society to Internet widening with this the digital gap and the possibility of the fact that the country is inserted in the designated society of the information and of the knowledge".

They warning in the document - approved by the all over the legislators in the chamber in September of 2011 - that Calderon violated the Law on the Approval of Treated in Economic Matter, since the Senate was not notified of the beginning of negotiations, of the advance of the documents and less than the scopes and commitments that implies the ACTA. The plural group was presided by the Eloy Cantu of PRI and was generated 19 of October of 2010 and during nine months accomplished conferences and public hearings with expert, academic and representative of the society, as well as authorities and integrating of the private sector, chambers and entrepreneurial organizations, in wheel to the content of the ACTA.

In the final document, in which are made known the conclusions, emphasize that the sign of that international instrument, routed to establish new multilateral standards for the respect of the intellectual property rights, before the growth of the goods trade "pirates" and forged, it is "affected of a vice of origin", all time that from the various instances of the federal government, the negotiations were driven "with secrecy and opaqueness". The legislators see with preoccupation "inconsistencies" of the content of that agreement with various national legal arrangements, mainly in the topic of internet.

It is not specified, it indicated the document that is understood by " digital area, if will certify it the public nets and/or private, the calculation equipment, the systems and/or applications, the cellular nets, Satellites sales and telephonic. "The ambiguity would attempt against the legal certainty and would imply risks derived from their free interpretation". Them concerns to the legislators that the article 27.2 of the ACTA confer responsibilities to the service lenders of Internet to decide what content or transmission by the net means a infringement to the legislation against the piracy, since the Mexican law prevents to know what is communicated by Internet.

The article 16 constitutional establishes the inviolability of the communications and the article 177 of the Federal Penal Code sanctions until with 12 prison years, to who impedes communications privates without mandate of competent judicial authority. In fact it is intended to convert to the servants of Internet into "an authority ‘de facto’ that would decide that contained or transmission is opposite to what was established in the agreement, what would affect the right to the users to the due process, violating the articles 14 and 16 constitutional”. Opposite to the legislation, the ACTA compels to the data publication not only of transgressors, but also of presumed violating.

Affect the ACTA to the "society of the information"
The Mexican Association of Internet (Amipci) warned that the ACTA, signed the Wednesday past (7/11/12), by the Mexican government - according to is seen is an authoritative government that controls the information produced in the country -, "it can affect the development of the country in the transition toward a society of the information and the knowledge, since violent (several) legal constitutional arrangements in the national legal classification". For that reason, the group requested yesterday (7/13/12), "attempts and respectfully to the representative of the executive branches and legislative and especially to the integrating of the plural group of work to give follow-up to the process of negotiations of the ACTA, that would not have to subscribe" or well to reserve some points.

Of this manner, in a communiqué about the topic, the association - that groups to more than 200 companies related to the use of Internet - certainly its position as compared to the sign of the ACTA and their possible ratification by the Senate, where clarifies that "penalty the wrong practical, the abuses and indeed the manufacture and piracy", but the signed version of the agreement “would be committing the individual freedom guarantees of expression, safety and due process, the hearing guarantees and of privacy of the communications, as well as some international procedures contained in treaties that Mexico has ratified and that consequently they are integral part of our national legal classification". Julio Cesar Vega, directing of the Amipci, considered that we are in against of the method, that is the problem, and concerned because approaches the digital environment, and we know that in Mexico Internet has not reached the development level that in other countries ACTA signatories, therefore "the repercussions that it can have are serious in terms of the increase of their breakthrough in the population". (La Jornada, politica, p. 14, July 14, 2012).