Poles protest ACTA online and on the streets

(AP)  WARSAW, Poland — Hundreds of people waged a street protest in Warsaw on Tuesday to protest the government's plan to sign an international copyright treaty, while several popular websites also shut down for an hour over the issue.

Poland's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has sparked days of protest, including attacks on government sites, by groups who fear it could lead to online censorship.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk insisted Tuesday that his government will not give in to the protesters. He vowed that Poland will sign the international agreement, which is aimed at protecting intellectual property — like music and books — and products including pharmaceuticals and designer items. ACTA enjoys widespread support from the producers of music, movies and a range of goods enjoying copyright protections.

"There will be no concessions to brutal blackmail," Tusk said at a news conference.

Several popular websites replaced their normal content with a statement about ACTA, including several that are popular with young people and carry a mix of celebrity news, jokes, funny photographs and other entertaining material.

One site, www.wykop.pl, said that "under the banner of fighting piracy and concerns about intellectual property, ACTA will limit the rights of each of us."

At the street protest, held in front of a European Union office, people carried banners that said "Stop ACTA," while some put tape over their mouths to signify their fears that ACTA will infringe on freedom of expression online.

An extremist right-wing group is planning a separate protest Wednesday to oppose ACTA.

However, an influential group representing authors and composers — known by its Polish acronym ZAiKS — has thrown its support behind ACTA. ZAiKS argued that ACTA will not hurt Internet freedom but protect the rights of creators. It said that Internet piracy is now robbing artists and the state treasury of hundreds of millions of zlotys (many millions of dollars) in income.

ACTA shares some similarities with the hotly debated Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S., which was shelved by lawmakers last week after Wikipedia and Google blacked out or partially obscured their websites for a day in protest.

In recent days, a group calling itself Anonymous attacked Polish government websites, leaving several paralyzed on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, most appeared to be working again, though the prime minister's site was unreachable.

Still, Polish leaders are vowing to stick to plans to sign ACTA in Tokyo on Thursday.

ACTA has been negotiated by a number of industrialized countries that have been struggling for ways to fight counterfeiting and intellectual property theft — crimes that cause huge losses to the movie and music industries and many other sectors.

The far-reaching agreement would cover everything from counterfeit pharmaceuticals to fake designer handbags to online piracy. The United States signed ACTA in October in Tokyo along with seven other countries: Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Morocco and Singapore.

Critics of ACTA accuse the negotiating countries of hammering out the agreement in secret and failing to consult with the broader societies along the way.

(This version CORRECTS Updates with the websites going dark; corrects style on spelling of group ZAiKS. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)

Scientific American

• Poles protest ACTA online and on the streets

[bob2277]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W9PyNxgCK4&feature=youtu.be

[jan_majcherczyk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmIau1ov18&feature=related

[villixyz]

Hundreds of people you say...
http://www.polskieradio.pl/5/562/Galeria/524020/1

[Lie92]

no hundreds, thousdands. Tomorrow we are going to start demonstrations in other cities.

[kokosowy]

and hundreds of thousands in internet.
http://www.facebook.com/events/301294013254264/
and day after day more.

[Szajka]

Well, to be fair- it was a group of hackers who calls themselves "Polish Underground", not Anonymous, who hacked Prime Minister's site.
Prime Minister ignored 500 000 Internauts who protests online (for example -110 000 people signed the online petition) and all the people protesting in front of the European Parliament. Poland does not have to sign ACTA excacly on Thursday, it can wait, but the government claims that "this agreement won't change anything in the Polish law." And again - if not, what is the point in sighning it? Something is wrong...

[ozoku]

Well you say gang anonymous because they did almost nothing on a shelf that is just and our have started to do exactly.

P.S. Digitization of Polish citizens to join such as Tusk was immersed in the EU but also to have freedom of speech without fear of your data is checked because it's what you do on the Internet that others should not care because you're not in usiebie Tusk, where everyone has to walk on four legs to bring him something. So as Polish Prime Minister wants to have blocked the download let it set a new noda and the level of parental child then there will have it.

P.S. (2) All users join the Internet and show them who has the better authority of the offices, because hackers do not like the Amiga to the internet, so ordinary people as prime minister and other officials who are to be let it be sticking where they ass can not excuse . NOT FOR POLAND ACTA and the world! I'm sorry if I made mistakes because I know English very well.

[Arczi6999]

What about democracy? Anybody is against SOPA in Poland, the others are just not well-informed. Isn't that tyranny, when people don't want something, but government do different?

[Lie92]

e... SOPA is for USA. Poland is in Europe and we have ACTA.

[Psysutra]

ZAIKS is robbery organisation. About 30% of incomes from CD selling goes to ZAIKS account- artist gets ~3-4%. Off course, ZAIKS won't be against ACTA by simple reason- who would like to decrease profits? :)