2. January 2012
November 2010: ACTA finalised
April 2011: ACTA published
October 2011: ACTA signed by
Australia, Canada, Japan,
Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore,
South Korea, & the United States
every reason to think the EU and
its 27 member states, plus
Mexico, would sign sometime in
2012, and then ratify
3. 18 January 2012
Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP
Act (2011)
Internet Blackout 18 January 2012
Wikipedia, Google, Mozilla +
115,000 sites went dark/modified
Net community: 4.5 million
signatures
SOPA and PIPA withdrawn that same
day
4. 19 January 2012
a few hours after SOPA/PIPA were
withdrawn, a group of NGOs and
activists met with Polish
ministries, who announced ACTA
would be signed one week later
unexpected: it broke an earlier
agreement that nothing would be
signed until issues had been
explored and resolved
immediate widespread anger – and
soon action
5. why Poland erupted
Michał Woźniak http://rys.io/en/70
Polish government went back on its
word
an imminent deadline concentrated
minds
Polish activists followed ACTA for
a long time
SOPA victory the day before
Poles remembered the Communist
years
6. Poland's protests
"spontaneous, grass-roots
activities"
NGOs took on the role of co-
ordinators
crucial decision was "no-logo
rule": no party, group or similar
logos, banners, flags, etc.
single, cross-party protest
tens of thousands in -30ºC
Anonymous joined in
7. political reaction (1)
"we will not succumb to blackmail"
26 January: 22 EU countries,
including Poland, signed ACTA
polls showed 64% against ACTA; 1.8
million emails sent to Polish MPs
government called for "dialogue"
3 February: Polish government
suspended ratification
17 February: asked EU leaders to
reject ACTA
8. Europe stirs
25 January: MEP Marietje Schaake
published her concerns in
document on Reddit
26 January: Kader Arif, EP
rapporteur for ACTA, resigned;
spoke of ACTA's "masquerade"
31 January: Slovenian Ambassador
published apology for signing
ACTA, under "barrage of questions
in my inbox and on Facebook"
9. European protests
EU-wide street protests organised
for 11 February
Netzpolitik.org
La Quadrature du Net
massive numbers took to the
streets
Germany (100,000),Denmark (15,000),
Austria (10,000), Bulgaria
(7,000), Romania (5,000), Hungary
(1,000)
10. immediate reactions
EU countries halted ratification
6 February: Czech Republic
6 February: Slovakia
9 February: Latvia
10 February: Germany
14 February: Bulgaria
16 February: Lithuania
17 February: Slovenia
all suffered under left- or right-
wing totalitarianism
11. delaying tactics
22 February: European Commission
asked European Court of Justice
whether ACTA is incompatible in
any way with the EU's fundamental
rights and freedoms
wrong question, and would probably
take 1-2 years; clearly betting
anger would subside by then
Jérémie Zimmermann rejected the
idea immediately
maintaining momentum
12. political reaction (2)
12 April: (new) ACTA rapporteur
recommends rejection, as do
Socialists in European Parliament
25 April: Liberals and Democrats
declare against ACTA
31 May: ITRE (Industry, Research,
Energy), JURI (Legal affairs),
and LIBE (Civil Liberties) vote
for rejection
21 June: INTA (International
Trade) also rejects
13. victory
4 July: plenary vote on ACTA
European Parliament voted down
ACTA by 478 votes to 39, with 165
abstentions
remarkable majority
remarkable rejection of
international trade agreement
negotiated by European Commission
Lisbon Treaty
14. lessons to be learned
one thing leads to another
small pieces loosely joined
we have the technology
we have the brains
the joy of texts
publish and be damned
keep politics out of it
united we stand
15. inspiration
glyn.moody@gmail.com
@glynmoody on Twitter/identi.ca
opendotdotdot.blogspot.com
