TMCnet Feature

Eastern European nations of Poland and Slovenia decided to distance themselves from a global copyright treaty after American government websites were hacked Friday.

According to a TMCnet article, at least six United States government websites were disrupted by the hacker group Anonymous.

Three websites that were confirmed to be hacked included the US Federal Trade Commission, National Consumer Protection Week and the Consumer Protection Agency. Each website displayed a message intended for the United States government and other international world leaders stating:

“If the ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries, the world can expect a war that [will] rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy, and Internet freedom. There is no doubt that the ACTA is more dangerous and detrimental to our rights than the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act that asked for similar legislation). ACTA will further spread the contagion of stricter copyright enforcement worldwide, at the expense of our essential liberties and basic freedom of speech, expression, and privacy.”

The countries said they won’t ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) because of acknowledged misgivings about the deal and anger amongst its citizens, as reported by the Associated Press.

Since the decision, two Eastern European politicians have come forward apologizing for their earlier signatures for the treaty.

Slovenian ambassador to Japan Helena Drnovsek Zorko, who signed ACTA in Tokyo last month, wrote on her blog, “I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness.” The Associated Press stated the ambassador wrote that she did not understand at the time how it could limit freedom “on the most significant network in human history.”

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, “I was wrong,” when referring to his earlier support for ACTA.

The treaty, which aims to fight international property theft including online piracy, was said to be in the works for four years before any civil rights organizations were aware.

Once organizations discovered the treaty “people became furious,” says Katarzyna Szymielewicz, director of Poland’s Panoptykon Foundation, which campaigns for privacy right and opposes ACTA. “We have a history of rising up against injustice.”

The rest of the country’s citizens, however, discovered through social networking sites such as Twitter (News - Alert).

"This was the last drop that made it a flood," Szymielewicz told the Associated Press. "The Internet is a space of freedom — something people feel really belongs to them — and suddenly the government interferes with this space.”

In related news, a survey conducted by Prosper Mobile Insights Thursday states that with talks of SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, 70.3 percent of mobile users say they are somewhat or very concerned that the government could pass a censorship law prohibiting them from visiting their favorite mobile sites and apps.

In addition, 38.2 percent say a censorship law would have a negative impact on them personally and 66.8 percent say individual device users should have the final say in determining what is inappropriate and should be blocked.