Tens of thousands of demonstrators have protested against the anti-piracy agreement ACTA, in Germany. In Munich alone, approximately 16,000 opponents of the agreement on international copyright in the city gathered on Saturday in an icy cold. In Berlin around 6,000 people participated, according to the police, in the demonstration, the Organizer spoke even of 10.000.
Auch in numerous other cities in Germany, demonstrators followed the call to action Acta ad Acta!. On posters, they demanded Freedom on the Internet or For reform of copyright. Others wore masks of the anonymous hacker Association. Party members of the Greens, left, and the Pirate Party took part in the protests.
Green Chief Claudia Roth and Board Member Malte Spitz saw the protests as a brilliant signal against acta and vibrant democracy in the digital age. Despite the cold, over 50,000 people in more than 50 cities had demonstrated in Germany alone. It was a successful, peaceful and loud demonstration. The high number of participants shows that the issue is important, said the organizer of the Munich demonstration, Roland Jungnickel.
High participation in protests in Eastern Europe.
In other EU countries, mainly in Eastern Europe, net activists went for the freedom on the Internet on the road. In the Baltic States, several thousand people in freezing temperatures took part in the protests. In Estonia, more than 2,000 people were counted. Also in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, more than 600 people have expressed their displeasure over the controversial anti-piracy agreement.
More than 2,000 activists of power before the Parliament met in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. In Salzburg, Austria, about 1,000 mainly young people followed the calls. There were several hundred demonstrators in Brussels.
Worldwide, the international coordinator of the campaign Stop ACTA, Sebastian Radtke, with 150,000 to 200,000 demonstrators was expecting. The actions focus here on Europe and North America, as shown in an overview map of the campaign. In countries such as Australia and Brazil, demonstrations were planned of another information platform according to.
The organizers, which include the Pirate Party and the occupy movement, fear that the ACTA agreement cut liberties on the Internet. The copyright agreement negotiated on the initiative of United States and Japan regulates inter alia the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the digital environment. ACTA stands for anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, a trade agreement to deter counterfeiting thinks so. Critics see in it, however, a restriction of freedom on the Internet.
The Treaty provides for, inter alia, that Internet service providers should provide data such as the IP address, to enable identification of individuals for copyright infringement. Copyright holders could enforce then legally their claims.
Caspary wants to convene parliamentary procedure Germany had recently decided not to sign the agreement for now. A decision on the matter is but not linked, it was said from the Foreign Ministry. The opponents of the controversial treaty, among them the Greens, the left and the Pirate Party, welcomed the decision as a first success. The decision, however, criticized the Federal Association of German industry (BDI): the Federal Government.
too bad the innovators GermanyThe MEP Daniel Caspary (CDU) was very surprised by the decision of the Federal Government. On Germany radio he spoke in culture for this, to consider the agreement in an open parliamentary procedure. He take very seriously the objections by critics because of a possible limitation of the Internet or freedom of expression. In this text he could not recognize but such restrictions.
The ACTA agreement had been signed on 26 January by the European Union, as well as from 22 of the 27 Member States. Germany have not yet tunterzeichnet the Treaty only for formal reasons, the missing signature will be rescheduled in the near future, it had subsequently said the Foreign Ministry.
