European Anti-ACTA protests of 11 February

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. 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 the mainstream 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 For the first time, these protests have ignited a wider debate on how the outdated copyright law can be adapted to the requirements of the digital age.