This means that ACTA, in its current form, is dead. The Treaty is completed and signed by many countries – including both the USA and the UK. But without the European Parliament’s ratification, it cannot become law in any EU country, including the UK. ACTA without Europe simply cannot work on the global stage. It is for this reason that Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Pirate Party in Sweden, leads in TorrentFreak: “ACTA Is DEAD...”; and why Twitter abounds with “TangoDown ACTA” messages.
“ACTA was a bad proposal on every level,” says Joe McNamee, executive director of the European digital rights organization EDRi. “The drafting process was closed and undemocratic. The final text would have prevented a positive reform of Europe's profoundly broken copyright system for years to come. Today's victory is an important milestone for internet freedoms in Europe and cross the globe,” he added.
“Today’s rejection of ACTA as a signal for more transparency and more active citizen participation will be understood,” comments Alexander Alvaro (Google translation), the vice president of the European Parliament. “In February 2010, I warned that ACTA could be rejected, in particular because of the non-transparent and citizen-distant kind of conclusion. This is happening today.”
But while anti-ACTA activists are celebrating, few will believe that their concerns over creeping internet censorship, embodied in ACTA, are over. ACTA proponents in both the European Parliament and the European Commission have already said that they won’t let simple rejection by the Parliament stop ACTA from being enacted.