2. ACTA Protest in Europe

It was 26 January 2012 in Poland, and the kids had been protesting in the streets against an intellectual property treaty in sub-freezing temperatures.

Already, Anonymous hackers had taken Polish government servers offline for more than 36 hours to protest against the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

I read the title, "Protests erupt across Europe against web piracy treaty" by Erik Kirschbaum and Irina Ivanova; I have to say, people all over Europe including Paris, Poland, Berlin, Germany etc., were protesting outside in extreme low temperatures like -10 C or worse for the sake of stopping ACTA, SOPA & PIPA because once those laws become active then imagine torrent & various file sharing sites being shutdown, we'll be forced to purchase songs, movies & games online where it isn't available locally. There will also be heavy internet surveillance where if you are caught exchanging pirated files with another user then you will either be sentenced to prison or be fined.

In Poland, the government has decided to postpone the ratification of the controversial anti-copyright agreement that has provoked widespread anger and protest, saying it needed further “consultation”.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that country needed more time to see if the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA as it is better known, was compatible with Polish law.

Opponents of the ACTA, which aims to crack down at online piracy, argue that it will infringe upon the freedom of information and free speech. Venting their spleen, anti-ACTA demonstrations have occurred across the country since the government inked the agreement last month, and hackers even managed to take down the prime minister’s website, among others, in a demonstration of cyber-opposition.

Lack of freedom of speech might affect online education. We won't be able to get general information about any topic.

    People all over the world might lose control over the government if he/she succeed this law. I myself would protest against this because I might lose fun over the internet. This all started ever since the shutdown of "Megaupload", a very popular file sharing site due to copyright infringement which I will talk about it in the next post. 

    Government from eight nations, signed an agreement to pursue ACTA which angered people not only in Europe but all over the world. I just can't imagine that people can tolerate that cold temperature. It's more like survival of the fittest or fight for the sake of "Internet Freedom". Anonymous who were also involved in the protest, stole some valuable information from the Polish government site & threaten to expose it to the public.

    The government also published a list of “commitments” that it requires to be met before the ratification process can go ahead. Top of this list is the commitment to publish all documents related to the ACTA that the state has, and all the material it can get out of the EU. This, the government hopes, should allow the greater scrutiny the agreement apparently deserves, and help calm fears that it has no secret or unknown aspects which would undermine internet freedoms.