

ACTA comes out of the closet in Poland (and goes supernova) - hastur

Just a few days ago, Poland was following the usual trajectory of an ACTA participant:  The public had no clue about the existence of the controversial international treaty, a small fraction of geeks expressed concerns that went unheard, while the government silently moved towards signing ACTA in Tokyo on January 26th.<p>Then something weird happened. 
On Friday Jan 20th the main newspaper of record (Gazeta Wyborcza) run an article about ACTA on its front page.
On Jan 21st the main TV news program (Wiadomosci on TVP1) run a short, but balanced story on ACTA.
The same evening, the website of Polish Parliament was defaced and subsequently taken down by its admins.
Multiple government websites (Prime Minister's, President's, Ministry's of Culture) went down. Mostly due to a sudden spike in interest, but there were also rumors of "hacker attacks" (DDoS), which certainly contributed to the whole mess. On the Sunday morning of Jan 22nd, both ACTA and the alleged hacker attacks were main headlines in all the media. Reporters were interviewing experts and NGOs. Sunday talk shows were talking about ACTA.<p>ACTA suddenly came into mainstream public debate.<p>The government spokesman sought to reassure the public, that ACTA won't be rushed and will be consulted. A government minister publicly admitted that the treaty wasn't handled appropriately. Despite these attempts to calm the situation, the internet community remained in the rage mode, journalists kept digging into ACTA and many government websites were, well, unresponsive (notably the Ministry of Defense). On Monday morning (Jan 22nd) the website of the Prime Minister was spectacularly defaced: http://bit.ly/ziSMLZ    
(The YouTube film posted there is a spoof of the announcement of Martial Law in 1981, a grim memory for every Polish citizen old enough to remember.) Also, a street demonstration against ACTA is planned in Warsaw for Jan 24th. The number of people declaring participation on Facebook shot from 10,000 to over 30,000 in past 48h. http://www.facebook.com/events/231718760242341/<p>Today (Jan 23rd) the government announced that it will follow through with the signing on Thursday, but assured that the treaty still needs to be ratified by the Parliament, and before that happens (in over one year's time) the topic will be thoroughly discussed in public and consulted with all interested parties.<p>So while we don't have a win for ACTA opponents yet, we do have something no other country had so far: government admission that the problem exists, awareness among the wide public and battles still to be fought.
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hastur
Update:

ACTA was the topic of two parliamentary committees on Jan 25th, and on Jan
26th the leader of the main opposition party has called for a referendum on
ACTA. (Probably just political grandstanding, but keeps the topic in the
headlines.)

Also, ACTA was criticized by official government watchdogs, including the
General Inspector for Personal Data Protection and the civil rights ombudsman.

Around 60,000 people participated in protests against ACTA across Poland on
Jan 25th. In the city of Kielce the protests have turned into small-scale
riots that resulted in 24 arrests.

The government kept its promise and signed ACTA on Jan 26th. The treaty still
needs to be ratified by the EU Parliament (soon) and the Polish Parliament.

The EU vote is more important, because 90% of ACTA would apply at the EU
level. (Even if the Polish Parliament rejected ACTA, Poland would still be
subject to 90% of ACTA as an EU member.)

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hastur
Second Update [Jan 27th]:

An opinion poll on ACTA was just published in Poland:

1) 64% oppose signing ACTA, (while 21% approve)

2) 60% disagree that ACTA will help fighting internet piracy, (29% agree)

3) 52% think that ACTA will curb civil liberties and rights, (38% don't think
so)

4) 49% find it permissible to block government websites in protest, (42% don't
think so)

Note: "blocking" means DDoS'ing, but not defacing or other destructive forms
of "hacking".

-

Michał Boni, the Minister for Administration and Digitization has offered to
resign over ACTA, but the Prime Minister didn't accept his resignation.

[The PM would be stupid to accept it, because Mr. Boni is the only sensible
person in the govt, when it comes to ACTA. He actually called upon the govt to
delay the signing of ACTA and to have a public debate first.]

-

Street protests continue for a 4th day, albeit with smaller numbers. (No doubt
-11 degrees Celsius doesn't help.)

[http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1732237,0,1,polska-walczaca-o-
wolna-s...](http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1732237,0,1,polska-walczaca-o-wolna-siec-
protest-w-warszawie,wiadomosc.html)

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hastur
Update with protest vids and photos:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3511980>

