1. ACTA: from desperation
to inspiration
glyn moody

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 SOPA and PIPA withdrawn that same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withdrawn, a group of NGOs and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
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