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ACTA's EU Future In Doubt As Poland Suspends Ratification

Posted by Soulskill on from the hitting-the-brakes dept.

superglaze writes "Poland has suspended its ratification process for ACTA, throwing the copyright crackdown into doubt for the whole European Union. ACTA is being handled as a 'mixed agreement' in the EU due to its criminalization clauses, so if a single EU member state (such as Poland) fails to ratify it, it is null and void across the entire union. If that were to happen, at least six of the remaining international signatories would have to ratify ACTA for it to apply anywhere in the world. Outside the EU, only eight countries — including the U.S. — have signed."

11 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. BRAVO POLSKA! by n1ywb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me be the first to say "BARDZO DOBRZA! ACTA JEST GUWNO!" ("Very well done! ACTA is shit!")

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    -73, de n1ywb
    www.n1ywb.com
  2. Thank you by qmaqdk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank you (again) Poland.

    --
    My UID is prime. Hah!
    1. Re:Thank you by TheBlackMan · · Score: 5, Informative

      I am Polish and actually, it is only our Prime Minister which is trying to manipulate the public into thinking that acta will not be ratified.

      Most of us is pretty sure that it is only a suspension, not complete stop. Polish government has a long history of lying and manipulating us, so they are waiting for the protests to chill out and will push ACTA at other time.

      We are now in the process of collecting signatures for a referendum, so we can kill ACTA once and for all. If that will not be enough, it may even be neccessary to remove the government.

  3. Heck yeah! by robinsonne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My thanks go out to the Polish people that are making enough of a stink about this that their government had to (maybe) reconsider.

    1. Re:Heck yeah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Personally, I'd like to give a big 'fuck you' to President Obama for trying to bypass congressional approval on ACTA by classifying it not as a treaty, but as an "executive agreement".

      Although congress would probably pass it anyway, now that the Republicans realize that helping out Hollywood is acting against their best interest, there is at least a shot it would get shot down...

      So much for 'change', just glad I voted third party. I'd rather throw away my vote than support a clown from the Republicrats.

  4. The industry's next move by countertrolling · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kick Poland out of the EU

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    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  5. Re:backlash? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a great pic of about 15 Polish legislators, holding paper Guy Fawkes masks over their faces - as the vote is tallied.
    http://static.arstechnica.net/2012/01/30/polish-mask-4f26f00-intro.jpg

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. Poland once again makes a stand against tyranny. by sehlat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This day will hopefully be remembered just as September 17, 1939 is.

  7. Estonia hasn't signed yet too... by Pecisk · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...and reason was also that agreement is too complex to be signed away so easily, so they have to discuss it first too. I highly doubt that they will hear nothing what happen in Poland and other countries with public opinion. This is country where government actually listens to people, using Internet extensively to collect comments about proposed laws.This is also a land where they elect their government using Internet and Skype was also started there.

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    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
  8. "I am a Pole" by chrb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Reminds me of the WWII story of Piorun versus the Bismarck:

    Plawski knew what he had to do – without the other destroyers Piorun couldn’t hope to face the Bismarck alone. Now that suprise was lost the Battleship was fast enough to keep Piorun out of torpedo range, the Piorun couldn’t stay in contact with her now. She should radio in Bismarck’s latest position and then, for want of another phrase, get the fuck out of Dodge.

    They’d all just have to hope that another ship was close enough to make contact with her again before she managed to slip away again – although given the weather and the darkness Plawski realised that was increasingly unlikely.

    It was frustrating and may ultimately mean the British missed their opportunity to intercept, but sadly, that was the only sensible option. Anything else was suicide.

    Plawski though for a split second then sighed, smiled and gave his orders to his crew:

    “Full speed ahead. All hands to battlestations. We attack.”

  9. Re:Well done Poland!!!! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is that surprising? They understand much better than many Western European states (or U.S. for that matter) why freedom matters, from recent and very personal experience.