Poland: Protests against international copyright treaty

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Poland: Protests against international copyright treaty

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Poles protest against governments move to ink international copyright treaty.

25 January,2012 01:50 am

Hundreds of people waged a street protest in Warsaw on Tuesday to protest the governments plan to sign an international copyright treaty, while several popular websites also shut down for an hour over the issue.Polands 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.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.