ACTA's EU future in doubt after Polish pause / Poland freezes anti-pira


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Poland's prime minister said Friday that Warsaw would put on ice plans to ratify a controversial international online anti-piracy accord after massive off-and-online protests in his country.

"I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified," Donald Tusk told reporters.

"The issue of signing of the ACTA accord did not involve sufficient consultation with everyone who is part of the process," Tusk said, adding that he would hold broad talks on what to do next.

"The ACTA ratification process will be frozen as long as we haven't overcome all the doubts. This will probably require a review of Polish law. We can't rule out that, at the end of the day, this accord will not be approved."

Tusk's decision comes in the wake of high-profile protests mostly by young Poles who fear the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- aimed at creating international standards for intellectual property protection -- could significantly curtail online freedom.

Polish legislators

dk7VI_large.jpg

http://www.google.co...4ab200e6f620.01

One member state down, 26 more to go! (Plus the EuroParl)

I'm surprised more eastern European member states have not stood up against this. Maybe corruption on behalf of the rights holders. Piracy is rife in some Eastern European countries, can't expect much else give the economics in some of them.

seriously i really doubt that stuff like acta or any other for that matter will stop piracy. In my opinion piracy is caused by crappy products in the first place. For example - do you want to pay around 60 usd for a game(that's what they cost in Europe) - where a single campaign lasts 4 hours? If the products were actually WORTH the money they cost i think piracy wouldn't be as big of an issue anyway. Besides people who make a ton of money on movies and music won't even spend what they have in 10 lifetimes.

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