ACTA Protest Guide: Rally Details From Around the World [UPDATED]

By Connor Adams Sheets | January 27 2012 5:58 PM

Protests are spreading across the globe, as outrage grows over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty in the wake of the SOPA bill being shelved last week by the U.S. Congress. Find all the details about these protest events below.

Reuters

An Anonymous protester mobilizes against the Polish government's plan to sign ACTA, which it proceeded to do Thursday.

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From ACTA to SOPA to the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act, Internet freedom is under assault from all angles, and the world's Internet freedom advocates continue their efforts to stop what they describe as a creeping encroachment on Internet privacy and constitutional rights.

Now that the furor over the Stop Online Piracy Act has died down following a major Internet blackout last week that led U.S. lawmakers to pull the controversial bill, the focus has shifted to stopping ACTA in its tracks. But the treaty is going to be much harder to stop than SOPA, and its effects are farther-reaching than any American legislation.

Groups throughout the world have set up a range of protest events aimed at keeping ACTA from becoming the way of the world.

A number of countries -- including the United States -- have already signed the treaty, and the EU and 22 of its 27 member states signed it Thursday in the face of major protests, led by the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous.

A proposed agreement that would create an international framework and set of standards for enforcing intellectual property rights, ACTA would create a voluntary legal regime that would allow for copyright and intellectual property cases to be adjudicated across national lines without having to contend with individual nations' conflicting laws.

And, since the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea signed the treaty in October 2011, and Mexico and Switzerland declined to sign but indicated that they plan to do so in the future, the momentum is in favor of ACTA supporters.

There is still time to fight against the treaty, which would restrict the ability of Web sites to engage in open discourse by placing draconian copyright and intellectual property restrictions in place throughout the world. There is a petition at WhiteHouse.gov with more than 30,000 signatures currently on file with the Obama administration, calling on it to end ACTA and protect our right to Internet privacy, and advocacy groups from around the world are mobilizing to stop the treaty from being fully ratified this summer. For more information about how to stop ACTA, visit this comprehensive site.

If you would rather ramp up your efforts to protest the bill by taking to the streets, consult the UPDATED list below of worldwide protest events listed on Accessnow.org :

AUSTRALIABrisbane: https://www.facebook.com/events/343578872339343/

AUSTRIABregenz: https://www.facebook.com/events/269553479781320/Graz : https://www.facebook.com/events/118354621620542/Innsbruck : https://www.facebook.com/events/295640580493380/Klagenfurt: https://www.facebook.com/events/187879947980252/Linz: https://www.facebook.com/events/288632391196893/Salzburg: https://www.facebook.com/events/359919090704207/Vienna : https://www.facebook.com/events/145907925526943/Zwetti : https://www.facebook.com/events/209411655821825/

BELGIUMNational: https://www.facebook.com/events/220201778069181/Bruxelles : https://www.facebook.com/events/282306501836322/

BRITAINEdinburgh: https://www.facebook.com/events/248493905226583/London: https://www.facebook.com/events/170835693019760/