The cyber-activist Anonymous group has launched an attack on web sites of the Polish prime minister, parliament, and others in protest against the proposed ACTA copyright agreement.

“The Polish revolution is now beginning,” Anonymous tweets Sunday morning as the Prime Minister's Office web site went offline after being hacked by the protesters.

The web site of the lower house of parliament (sejm.gov.pl) and the ZAIKS copyright association also came under attack.

“The situation is being constantly monitored,” Joanna Trzaska-Wieczorek at the PM's Office has said.

The hacktivists are protesting against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was signed by United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea last October in response to "the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works”.

EU countries have till 2013 to sign up to the agreement, which opponents say is an attack on freedom of expression and civil rights.

The Anonymous attacks, under the slogan 'Operation Anti-Acta', on Polish state web sites come after a week which saw the English version of Wikipedia blacking out its pages in protest against proposed US SOPA and PIPA laws, which would enable prosecutions of web sites linking to file-sharing sites.

The Polish version of Wikipedia, alongside the Czech version and others, were said to be considering a similar protest against the ACTA agreement.

At 10.00 CET, Sunday, the PM's web site, kprm.gov.pl, was still offline. (pg)