Two Bulgarian NGOs – of Internet users and Internet service providers – have reached a handshake deal with the government in which Prime Minister Boyko Borisov promises that Bulgaria will ratify the ACTA with reservations.

On Thursday, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov met with representatives of the local IT sector, Internet Service Providers and MPs with his ruling centrist-right GERB to discuss the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which was signed by the Bulgarian Cabinet last week without any public mention.

Bulgaria will express its reservations upon ratifying ACTA and it will be explicitly written down that the country will not amend its legislation as far as Internet is concerned, key GERB lawmaker Valentin Nikolov said after the meeting..

A deal with the Bulgarian Association of Users of Telecommunication and Internet Services and the Association for Electronic Communications reached Thursday that Bulgaria's authorities' reservations with provide for applying the existing Bulgarian legislation instead of the ACTA when it comes to controlling Internet traffic.

Yanaki Ganev, head of the Users' Association, described the deal with Borisov as a "gentlemen's agreement."

"The ACTA to be ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria, with a reservation on the articles imposing control on Internet traffic that the currently existing Bulgarian legislation will be applied," says handwritten text by Borisov as part of the agreement.

"Nobody controls Internet traffic in Bulgaria at the moment. There is no equipment for controlling the users. The ACTA is too general which creates prerequisites for it to be interpreted in a potentially dangerous way," explained Neven Dilkov, Chair of the Association for Electronic Communications.

He explained that the reservations accepted by the Bulgarian Prime Minister refer to a few ACTA articles on Internet service provides. In additional to freedom concerns, the ISPs in Bulgaria were worried that it would be tremendously expensive for them to purchase the equipment for following Internet traffic.

Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov reiterated on Wednesday that ACTA was not a final agreement and is in the process of ratification where Bulgaria can hold debates and express reservations about it.

The agreement has already stirred international outcry, since it is expected to enable the entertainment industry to exert pressure on every Internet actor under threat of criminal sanctions.

In order to become effective in Bulgaria, ACTA must first be ratified by the European Parliament and then by the Bulgarian Parliament, which is expected to happen no earlier than June.

Bulgarian Internet users and ISPs alike have voiced their concern over the potential ratification of ACTA by the Bulgarian government, with a prostest being scheduled in Sofia on February 11.

On Thursday, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) came up with a statement opposing "the adoption of АСТА (The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) amid a total lack of transparency and no public dialogue on the document's impact on the economy and society".

The ACTA agreement will breach users' rights and change the course of internet evolution, argued a branch union of Bulgarian ISPs Wednesday.

"ACTA aims at obliterating anonymity and entirely transform the structure of the global network," said the Bulgarian Union of Independent Internet Providers.

In addition, Bulgarian ISPs argue that the agreement will breach privacy of users and will go as far as reverse the presumption of innocence.

Last Thursday, Bulgaria became one of 21 EU member states who joined countries such as the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Switzerland as signatories to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The intergovernmental treaty stipulates that downloading content such as music and movies from sites not sanctioned by rights owners, such as torrent trackers, is similar to product counterfeiting.

ACTA further will have such actions be subjected to criminal, and not civil proceedings, as has been up to now.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!