Poland saw massive protests yesterday due to the government’s intention to sign ACTA. The government went ahead and signed it despite the protests from the public.

The people did have a few heroes in government yesterday, however, with officials from the Palikot’s Movement wearing Guy Fawkes masks in protest. As many are aware, Guy Fawkes is the official mascot for Anonymous.

It was presumably a call out to the Internet community who are vehemently against ACTA.

All is not lost in Poland though as a Redditor points out that while ACTA was signed in by the government yesterday, it still has to be approved by a majority of parliament and then the President who can veto it.

Before all that happens though, let’s just bask in the wonder of politicians making a huge shout out to the Internet community.

[Both pictures courtesy of Reddit]

"In addition to searching and browsing more than 300 news sources from their desktop, 40 million Polish speakers from Poland and around the world will also be able to find News results through an iPhone," says Benoit Lafortune at the Google News Blog.

The Polish news results will also be blended into standard search results on the Polish version of Google, much like they are here in America. Honestly, it seems like they should have Google News available in all languages by now. Their ultimate quest is after all to organize the world’s information. But, at least they are one step closer to that goal with the Polish release.

I can’t read Polish, but it doesn’t look like there are any archives available at this point, although I would expect there will be eventually. At some point they might even get the print newspaper archives in their as well.

For those who can read Polish, there is a post about it from Przemys?aw Budkowski on the Google Poland Blog.

"I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it," Kaczynski said in an interview posted on the Web site of his conservative Law and Justice Party.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Former Prime Minister of Poland
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

He added, "I am not in favor of forcing people to participate in an election or to facilitate the voting process too much. Voting should be a serious conscious act that requires certain effort. Those who want to introduce voting over the Internet want to take that seriousness away. Internet users as a group are particularly easy to influence. It is known who controls the Internet and who uses it. This group is easy to manipulate and to suggest who to vote for."

Kaczynski is something of a technophobe who does not own a cell phone or have a bank account, and his party has had difficulty appealing to younger voters.  Young voters strongly supported the liberal Civic Platform, which won last years elections.

Concerning his comments about online voting, political public relations specialist, Eric Mistewicz said, "The Internet forums exploded with negative comments. This shows that Kaczynski remains in the 19th century while the world has moved forward. It shows why he lost the elections and why people who know who Cicero was and don’t know what Google is lose."
 

According to Lenssen’s personal translator Ludwik Trammer, a 23-year-old programmer tested some Google-bombing software (he called it "website positioning" software) and made it so that a search on Google for "kutas," or "penis," returned the official website for Polish president Lech Kaczynski.

After officials traced the IP address back to the programmer, he faces up to three years in prison for insulting the president. Though making light of the Presidential Pole in such a manner may have landed him in pokey, software such as the one described is sure to make him rich and famous – at least until Google finds an answer for it.   

Yes, I like what the lawyer’s done here. He expresses his message with such clarity yet with such ferocity that the reader cannot help but get lost in the author’s finger pointing style. While the legalese is somewhat fatiguing, it adds an air of authenticity to the work, making this commanding prose a true fait accomplis.

At issue for the Group of Young Artists and Writers, better known in Poland as GMAiL, is the association of artists’ ownership of the domain gmail.pl. Google’s trademark lawyers are demanding the group give up the domain.

This isn’t the first time Google’s made an assault on poetry. Remember Matt Waddell’s arrhythmic tribute to Google Mobile services? Sadly, some of us will never forget.

The Group, in traditional artistic defiance of corporate governing, said that not only did they buy the domain "legally, with our own money," but they have no intention of giving it up without a fight.

Accusations that the Group was purposefully cybersquatting on the domain for a payday, which they deny, are moot. Google’s legal team made it very clear that the company "had no intention of paying for something which belonged to [Google]."

Google hasn’t had much success in Europe claiming the variations on Gmail domains. Their insistence has fallen on deaf ears in the UK and in Germany, where gmail.co.uk and gmail.de were in question. The difference in those cases, however, is that the domains were purchased before Google launched Gmail.

But that may not matter either considering Europe’s historical support of the arts. As we’ve seen in Belgium, writers win whether it makes any sense or not.

So, on this occasion of Google’s second assault on poetic profundity, we thought we’d revisit the ever-useful-in-a-poetry-spoof-bind Vogon poetry generator. Warning: do not read this aloud, as the point is to create really, totally, profoundly awful poetry that if uttered into the air, matter and antimatter everywhere would find each other thus negating existence. Ahem. Here ya go:

Googledygook

See, see the authoritarian sky
Marvel at its big salmon depths.
Tell me, Eric Schmidt do you
Wonder why the bush baby ignores you?
Why its foobly stare
makes you feel scrunch-goggled.
I can tell you, it is
Worried by your pusserchunked facial growth
That looks like
A Polish sausage.
What’s more, it knows
Your butternut potting shed
Smells of goose berries.
Everything under the big authoritarian sky
Asks why, why do you even bother?
You only charm foot fungus.

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Dodgeball, in the words of Steve Poland, “allows users with cell phones to notify their friends via text messages (SMS) as to what bar or restaurant they currently are at (and thus where their friends can meet them for a drink).” Changes to this relatively small service, which is only available in 22 cities, may not have massive repercussions.

Still, asking users to sign in with a Google Account is a move that has raised some eyebrows. “Though not surprising, it is concerning that some people (ahem, me) will have so many services linked to one ID that can be cracked or subpoenaed,” wrote Brady Forrest. “Though there will be greater convenience with this change it also brings on greater ricks [sic].”

And as Donna Bogatin pointed out, the sign-in page offers a bit of a “push.” “If you already have a Google Account, use that to sign in,” it reads. “If not, use your dodgeball username and password and we’ll help you create a Google Account.”

Dodgeball is still being ignored in other ways, though. Bogatin, who made the “orphan” observation, also noted that “the Dodgeball.com About Us’ page . . . still makes no reference to owner Google and Dodgeball is not featured on Google’s Google Products‘ page.”

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.