Samenvatting

The successful policy intervention of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was the result of a combination of public and institutional advocacy. ACTA aimed to harmonise the combating of copyright infringements in the digital environment, which are believed to have been left out by the former agreements. The opaque nature of the conferences and the lack of public input made the agreement target to criticism of civil society organizations. EU citizens were concerned that this agreement would restrict the internet and violate their free speech and privacy. Another cut of their online liberties found the protesters in the criminalization of the circumvention of digital security technologies and the resulting multi-million file sharing lawsuits against individuals. This agreement then turned into a chance for the European Parliament to prove that citizen’s voices are heard and represented with their newly gained institutional strength after the Lisbon Treaty. The culmination of a month long effort by advocacy groups to keep the issue in the public consciousness rendered ACTA
politically dead.
This report will shed new light on the issue by bringing together separately examined issues by
academics. In addition this dissertation endeavours to investigate the events leading up to the growing momentum. Furthermore it will show the concerns raised by the civil society. A clear overview of the flaws in the negotiation of the agreement, including the secrecy and the content will be shown. It will try to analyse and illustrate the degree of differences between ACTA and the existing EU Intellectual Property laws.