Polish premier stops ratification of internet anti-piracy treaty

Feb 3, 2012, 15:24 GMT

Warsaw - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stopped the ratification of an internet anti-piracy treaty on Friday and said more analysis was needed of the treaty, which had sparked nationwide protests.

Tusk said that internet activists had been underrepresented at government meetings on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and that the consultations had been dominated by copyright owners.

'Consultations on ACTA were incomplete. ... this all needs to be discussed on a higher level than up until now,' Tusk said. It could not be 'ruled out' that Poland would not ultimately pass ACTA, Tusk said.

Tusk said he called off for at least one year the ratification of the treaty, which aimed to protect intellectual property rights.

Signed by 31 countries so far, ACTA has sparked protests and hacker attacks on several Polish government websites. Critics say it will lead to intrusive surveillance and censorship.

Poland has signed the treaty along with other European Union member states, but the treaty had still needed to be ratified by parliament and signed by the president.

President Bronislaw Komorowski recently asked a human rights ombudsman to look into the treaty to see whether it violated the country's civil rights laws.