European Anti-ACTA protests of 11 February

15 February, 2012

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Deutsch: Europäische Proteste gegen ACTA vom 11. Februar

Several tens of thousands of citizens from an estimated 200 cities in Europe went out in the streets on a cold 11 February 2012, in a massive pan-european protest against ACTA and to support digital civil rights. Several EDRI members and observers have reported for the EDRi-gram on what happened in their countries.

The biggest turnout was in Germany, where 100 000 protesters flooded the streets to demonstrate against the ACTA agreement. These massive protests in spite of sub-zero temperature have caught the attention of not only politicians but also media and the wider public completely by surprise. A day before, the German government backed down in face of this wave of online protest and postponed the signing of ACTA until the decision of the European Parliament. The demonstrations were organized entirely in a decentralized manner via the Internet. The participants were mostly very young and took part in a demonstration for the first time. In Berlin 10 000 people took the streets against ACTA, in Munich even 16 000. Never before have so many people protested for reforming copyright legislation and against overshooting surveillance of the digital realm. Because of the protests, ACTA became the main topic in the news in Germany and has remained so ever since. For the first time, these protests have ignited a wider debate on how the outdated copyright law can be adapted to the requirements of the digital age. Therefore, EDRi-member Digitale Gesellschaft e.V. demanded: "We must reform copyright but must not cement it with ACTA."

In the capital of Bulgaria approx 6-8 000 people showed up in one of the largest demonstration since 1997, shouting slogans against ACTA and for Internet freedom. In some cases the local police did not allow the participants in Sofia to wear the Guy Fawkes - or "V" - masks and even asked for purchase proof for the laptops people brought at the event, to "make sure they were not stolen".

Since the Austrian government signed ACTA on 26 January, a broad movement against the treaty has formed. It consists of activists in and around the EDRi member VIBE!AT, a group of former Pirate Party members who started their own initiative (netzfreiheit.org), political parties and representatives (the Greens, MEP Ehrenhauser and the Pirate Party) and Anonymous. Together, these different groups have dominated the public perception of ACTA. The efforts included: concentrated press releases to push the story out of the tech departments, press conferences held by ACTA opponents and discussions in independent media formats. The action peaked on 11 February when all over Austria close to 10 000 people took to the streets to protest against ACTA.

Around 5 000 Romanians gathered in over 20 major cities, most of them in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest, to demonstrate against ACTA. They were also chanting for Internet freedom and against surveillance. There are several national online petitions gathering more than 40 000 signatures asking for ACTA not to be ratified by the European Parliament or the national Parliament.

After the publication of the information that the Czech Republic had signed ACTA, EDRi-member Iuridicum Remedium published a Czech translation of the campaign "Call your MPs" (EDRi). The media began to seriously inform about ACTA and the first debate about the agreement was held on 2 February. On 6 February the Czech government office issued a statement that the Czech Republic had stopped the ratification of ACTA, but that didn't stop several Czech cities to join the demonstration against ACTA on 11 February 2012.

Close to a thousand Hungarians gathered in Budapest for the the nation's first ACTA protest, with smaller rallies also held in Székesféhervár, Szeged and Pécs. The demonstrations were organized by the Hungarian Anonymous Group, Occupy Budapest and the Pirate Party movement.

In Finland about 400 people attended the anti-ACTA demonstration on 11 February in the streets of Helsinki. The demonstrations helped raise media attention, especially because earlier coverage on ACTA was very low. The Finnish Parliament is expected to discuss ACTA in Autumn 2012.

Protesters also demonstrated against ACTA in The Netherlands. People in various cities, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, faced the cold and expressed their discontent with ACTA. In Amsterdam some 250 people gathered in Dam Square where there were some improvised speeches. MEP Marietje Schaake visited the demonstration. Halfway in the afternoon, about half of the demonstrators made an improvised march through the city.

In Brussels, around 300 people protested in the city centre shouting slogans against ACTA and rolling out a huge banner: "ACTA: Sharing culture is a now crime - Thank you EU!" Participants included local politicians, representatives from several Belgian NGOs (such as Constant, datapanik and Nurpa), international NGO AccessNow.org, press people and many Anonymous masks.

Around 500 protesters also gathered in central London outside the offices of rights holder representative groups to protest against ACTA.

There are several online petitions against ACTA gathering milllions of signatures. The Access global petition has almost 400 000 and the Avaaz petition has over 2 million signatures already.

Pictures from demonstrations on 11.02.2012 Sofia
http://www.dnevnik.bg/photos/2012/02/11/1764407_fotogaleriia_protestut...
Austria
http://fotos.stopp-acta.at/
Czech Republic
http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/spolecnost/_galerie/1017187?type=image&am...
Germany
http://netzpolitik.org/2012/bilder-von-berliner-anti- acta-demo/
Romania
http://www.facebook.com/spune.nu.acta?sk=photos
Bruxelles
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/hermapix/sets/72157629276115405/
Hungary
http://bit.ly/xlAkEa
Finland
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charris87/sets/72157629270109515/
Several European cities
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/21630-manif-anti-acta-les-meilleures-...