Anti-ACTA riots in Poland (via REUTERS/Dominik Werner/Agencja Gazeta)
If SOPA and PIPA were not enough, European countries are signing up for ACTA, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, causing many to riot before the treaty is even placed into effect. ACTA, like its counterpart SOPA, is an attempt to establish international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement guidelines The same mega-corporations behind SOPA are also involved. Google, Sony, Verizon, and Intel just to name a few.
Within days of Poland signing onto the ACTA treaty, protest group "Anonymous" began a campaign of denial of service attacks on government websites, while other marched the streets. The protestors, like in the Occupy movements, consist of most younger people waiving self-made banners with anti-ACTA messages. Overall, the message is simple, "no to censorship," "stop ACTA." (Anonymous is quite busy these days. Keep up the good work.)
Poland Lawmakers protest ACTA (via AP/Alik Keplicz)
Guy Fawkes masks pepper the crowds, the symbol of the 99%, the protestor. In a sign of their opposition to the ACTA law, Leftist Palikot Lawmakers held up simple Fawkes masks over their faces as the treaty was signed. When the people and lawmakers both protest, why are the controversial laws passed? Who is pushing it all through?
Polish anti-ACTA rioters (Source unknown. I am noticing heavy influence from the 4Chan sub-culture here.)
The worry points of ACTA:
● Violates freedom of expression and communication privacy
● Give "safe harbor" to service providers and encourage them to submit collected data on the illegal actions of users.
● Allows law enforcement to pursue violators of the treaty on a "commercial scale."
● Boarder searches, including digital content searches.
● The overall, and global governmental secrecy concerning ACTA legislation.
The European Union, 22 Member States (including Poland), Japan, Australia, Canada, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States have signed the treaty as of January 26th, 2012.
At the moment, the protest spread across Europe.
Since ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA all have similar laws and conditions, if either goes into grand effect, "they" achieved their nefarious goal.
Cabe