EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Technology, Telecomunications

AKKA/LAA informed LETA that the society's tasks include licensing the use of copyrighted works, collecting copyright fees and paying royalties to copyright holders. Therefore the rejection of ACTA will not have any impact on AKKA/LAA, author activities or income.

As reported, yesterday, ACTA was rejected by the European Parliament, and hence will not become law in the European Union. This was the first time that the Parliament exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade agreement. 478 MEPs voted against ACTA, 39 in favor, 165 abstained.

While debating whether to give its consent to ACTA, the European Parliament experienced unprecedented direct lobbying by thousands of EU citizens who called on it to reject ACTA, in street demonstrations, e-mails to MEPs and calls to their offices. It also received a petition, signed by 2.8 million citizens worldwide, urging it to reject the agreement.