Mexico: ACTA Public Hearings Kick Off  · Global Voices
Geraldine Juarez

The controversial Anti-Counterfeit Commercial Agreement –widely known as ACTA–  is currently under discussion in the Mexican Senate in response to opposition from civil society to the way the treaty's negotiation process is being conducted.
ACTA in México
Blogs are publishing stories about ACTA from different perspectives. Conrado Romo [es], a blogger at Critica Pura, writes:
ACTA es más que un simple tratado, es más que una  discusión sobre piratería y propiedad intelectual, es más que un tema  centrado en la industria y los derechos de los usuarios de Internet,  ACTA (no como tratado, sino como fenómeno) es la lucha entre dos modelos  de civilización, uno que se está gestando y otro que está muriendo.
Rodrigo Camarena in the Nexos blog [es] points out:
Como varios han argumentado, la piratería en México  deriva en gran parte de la informalidad de nuestra economía, del alto  nivel de corrupción en el país, y por estas razones se debe de combatir  dentro de los ámbitos respectivos. La insuficiencia de los argumentos a  favor del ACTA nos obliga a preguntarnos: ¿Exactamente qué hace México  participando en estas negociaciones?
Public Hearings
The Mexican Senate created a legislative commission [es] last November whose main goal is to offer more transparency  regarding information about the treaty and the discussion, as well as  making sure the treaty is in accordance with fundamental and  constitutional rights. Before making a decision on whether to adopt or  reject ACTA in Mexico, the Senate is holding public hearings in order to hear the positions and arguments from different sectors of  civil society, lobbying groups, academics and Internet services  providers.
During the first session, the negotiation group led by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) revealed their reasons for joining ACTA. The complete video of the session is available on You Tube in Spanish.
A few weeks later, La Quadrature du Net released diplomatic cables related to ACTA with information about IMPI's petition to the United States to include Mexico in the negotiations.
Jenaro Villamil writes in  his blog:
A cambio de responder a la agenda norteamericana antipiratería, el gobierno mexicano pidió cooperación estadounidense, sobre todo en materia de asesoría en temas de patentes, tecnología y asesoría legal.
In light of this information, the second session of the ACTA working group was held in order to hear citizen's positions. It is important to mention that many of these citizens were involved in the #internetnecesario (necessary internet) movement that previously prevented a new tax on internet connection services.
Alejandro Pisanty [es] from Mexico's Internet Society was the first speaker:
La capacidad de la red para soportar culaquier invento o mecanismo de comunicacion y de transladar rapidamente los contenidos sin importar cual es su origen, han sido parte de la explosión creativa que caracteriza a internet [.] Internet es la mantra – literalmente –  de la innovación sin pedir permiso [.] que no puede ser detenida más que a un costo inaceptable para la sociedad.
Antonio Martínez from OpenACTA said [es]:
Discutir el contenido de ACTA ya no es la virtuosa opción que representaba hace unos meses porque una parte de las partes involucradas, es decir los negociadores  del ejecutivo, carecen de la legitimidad para hablar con los ciudadanos que han traicionado
Most of the people in the public meeting expressed their request to not sign the treaty.
The third session, held on February 23, featured academics and experts, intellectual property lawyers and lobbyist from the entertainment industry.
León Felipe Sánchez [es], an academic from the National University and Creative Commons México, told the Senators that they should not legitimize an illegal act from the executive power. Similarly, Juan Pablo Pampillo [es], from the renowned Escuela Libre de Derecho, recommended legislators to not subscribe to ACTA.
On the other hand, Jaime Campos [es] from the Association for the Protection of Film and Music considered it  necessary for Mexico to sign ACTA in order to protect the creators. In a similar fashion, lawyer Mauricio Jaliffe [es]  said that Mexico is not in a position to question the intellectual  property legislation and suggested that ACTA must be enforced to protect  author's rights in the country.
Professor Mariana Meneses [es] brought the attention to new models of microfunding and open licenses.
In the next session, to be held today, March 2, the telecommunications sector and corporate lobbying groups will present their positions towards the treaty. The agenda of the working group can be found here [es] and the Senate also set up this form [es] to receive comments about ACTA before making a decision.