Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty

Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty

www.bbc.co.uk

More than 10,000 people have taken to Poland's streets in protest at ministers signing a treaty activists say will result in internet censorship.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk says his government will on Thursday sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The treaty, known as Acta, aims to establish international standards to enforce intellectual property rights.

But critics say it could curb freedom of expression, and government websites have been hacked in protest.

(visit the link for the full news article)



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You heard of SOPA and PIPA.Now ACTA! Must read.

Yet another country rebelling against the censorship and government control of the internet, which as most of us know is primarily being pushed by the corporations claiming to be losing money. I won't post my usual diatribe on that.

How very nicely one hand (the corporate) washes the other (the government) isn't it?

Power to the people and to progress and real change out of all this. Bout time we the people all over the world stood up. Keep up the good work!

And hmmm...

www.techdirt.com...

As we noted in our post about people just discovering ACTA this week, some had put together an odd White House petition, asking the White House to "end ACTA." The oddity was over the fact that the President just signed ACTA a few months ago. What struck us as a more interesting question was the serious constitutional questions of whether or not Obama is even allowed to sign ACTA.

In case you haven't been following this or don't spend your life dealing in Constitutional minutiae, the debate is over the nature of the agreement. A treaty between the US and other nations requires Senate approval. However, there's a "simpler" form of an international agreement, known as an "executive agreement," which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval. In theory, this also limits the ability of the agreement to bind Congress. In practice... however, international agreements are international agreements. Some legal scholars have suggested that the only real difference between a treaty and an executive agreement is the fact that... the president calls any treaty an "executive agreement" if he's unsure if the Senate would approve it. Another words, the difference is basically in how the President presents it.

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

My question is why are governments around the world suddenly trying to censor the internet?

I sense something sinister going on...

Can anyone see this happening in the UK US (marching) ?

Nope, were all too lazy to get of our bums.

Go Poland.

Good for them!
It will happen everywhere they try to do it. I hope it doesn't pass anywhere. This is blatant corporatocracy at work. Sorry, but i do not feel bad for the movie/music industry, they still make millions (even billions). Sorry the RIAA/MPAA doesn't get their ridiculous cut of what the artists earn. If anything the artists need to slap around the record labels.

I liked that megabox idea. 90% of the revenue from song sales go directly to the artist. instead of

Originally posted by AzureSky
Good for them!
It will happen everywhere they try to do it. I hope it doesn't pass anywhere. This is blatant corporatocracy at work. Sorry, but i do not feel bad for the movie/music industry, they still make millions (even billions). Sorry the RIAA/MPAA doesn't get their ridiculous cut of what the artists earn. If anything the artists need to slap around the record labels.

I liked that megabox idea. 90% of the revenue from song sales go directly to the artist. instead of

reply to post by BagOfDrewshness

That's certainly a possibility with another world war shaping up. Another possibility is that people are just fed up. Finally. And particularly after watching what a powerful role the internet and social networking in general played in bringing down governments last year.

reply to post by BagOfDrewshness


My theory is always the grand unified one.

The hum and the eventual "sightings" are going to spread "mass panic" so lines of communication need to be cut so that people can "panic" more and not know how to really react to what they are seeing and hearing.

EDIT: I'm so joking right now

Originally posted by BagOfDrewshness
My question is why are governments around the world suddenly trying to censor the internet?

I sense something sinister going on...

edit on 25-1-2012 by BagOfDrewshness because: Added emphasis

Isn't it obvious?

The Internet is the epitome of freedom of speech and the freeflow of information.

They hate that.

reply to post by daaskapital


when the hell did australia sign this im an auzzie and i didnt hear anything

Originally posted by daaskapital

Originally posted by AzureSky
Good for them!
It will happen everywhere they try to do it. I hope it doesn't pass anywhere. This is blatant corporatocracy at work. Sorry, but i do not feel bad for the movie/music industry, they still make millions (even billions). Sorry the RIAA/MPAA doesn't get their ridiculous cut of what the artists earn. If anything the artists need to slap around the record labels.

I liked that megabox idea. 90% of the revenue from song sales go directly to the artist. instead of

reply to post by tetriswoooo


According to that one article I quoted in the OP, Obama signed it for the U.S. too. Hmm....

www.dfat.gov.au...
according to this its already been signed by america(and aus)

Bravo the Polish people - some of the bravest people on the planet. We stand by you.



Say NO to ACTA / PIPA / SOPA

Originally posted by tetriswoooo
reply to post by daaskapital

 

when the hell did australia sign this im an auzzie and i didnt hear anything

Signed it in October last year. They done it while the Carbon Tax was in the headlights, so none of us knew about the signing.

Happy Australia Day

www.aph.gov.au...

This article is rubbish. There were over 15 thousand people protesting in Cracow a major cultural and university centre of Poland. In many other cities there have been protests with over 5000 people. Probably more than 50 000 of young poles went out on streets yesterday. There are films all over the youtube made by protesters.

reply to post by Nebro


So, you're saying there were more people protesting than the OP article indicates? Even better.

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
reply to post by Nebro

 

So, you're saying there were more people protesting than the OP article indicates? Even better.

ACTA issue, since last Friday, have been pretty much commented by all news outlets here. Most of Internet users are protesting not only on the Internet but also in reality. Polish journalists say that this is largest outbreak of citizens disapproval to government policy since Lech Walesa and Solidarity.

From my personal perspective I this seems as our kind of OWS movement. These are mostly young educated people who are protesting against Internet censorship. But age is probably only one thing polish antiACTA movement and OWS have in common. Here protesters have completely different political views and beliefs but are united over one intent, stopping potential threat ACTA could be. Also people are infuriated about way this treaty passed through so many democratic institutions, evading probably all ways which could have brought up ACTA under public scrutiny much earlier.

too little too late. looks like acta is a go.

anyway, here is response;

The difference between a former communist country and the old West is that we know what censorship is and what dictatorship is.

We will ALWAYS rise against anything that might curb our freedom, because we have only 22 years since we WON our freedom, while old West have 200 years plus and they are BORN with freedom beeing a given.

So, westerners...WAKE THE F. UP, before is too late.

Also, go go Poland.