Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the Austrian capital Vienna to voice their opposition to the multi-national Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Press TV reports.
Opponents of ACTA say it was not properly thought through and will have adverse effects on fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and communication privacy.
The ACTA is a multi-national treaty that aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet.
“ACTA is written in a way that every country can interpret it in its way, so we don’t know what we expect which makes it so problematic,” Vienna Green Party representative Marco Shreuder said.
The protesters describe the agreement as much worse than similarly proposed laws in the United States that were recently put on hold, saying it could affect countries that didn’t even sign it.
They say ACTA can force internet companies to basically spy on a user’s activities, invading their privacy among many other communication ramifications.
The agreement was signed on 1 October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States.
In January 2012, the European Union and 22 of its member states signed the deal, bringing the total number of signatories to 31.
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