Bulgarian Parliament To Ratify ACTA with Reservations
Bulgaria's Parliament will ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), albeit with reservations about the provisions concerning Internet services, and thus in this area the effective Bulgarian legislation will continue to apply, it emerged after a meeting between prime minister Boiko Borisov, Internet providers and representatives of the IT sector.
Speaking after the meeting, MP Valentin Nikolov of the ruling centre-right GERB party announced that the national legislation on Internet service provision will remain unchanged after ACTA's ratification by Parliament, state-run Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported.
According to the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies, the agreement fails to address many issues in the protection of copyright and intellectual property. The association also disagrees on the provisions, which hold Internet services providers responsible for the information they transmit or the content they host.
Local opposition parties have warned against signing the controversial agreement in the recent days.
The ACTA agreement, which aims to establish international standards in the enforcement of intellectual property rights, was signed in Tokyo last week by 22 European Union member states, including Bulgaria. However, several other EU member states, Cyprus among them, opted not to join in.