ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the transnational bottom-up protests against ACTA. First, I explain briefly what ACTA was and why it provoked so much controversy. The second section of the chapter explores the politicization of IP and the way it was connected to international trade, provoking a wave of contestation. Then I trace the diffusion of mobilization against ACTA, focusing on Poland, Germany, and Bulgaria as three of the countries with the largest protests. The comparison between these three cases is particularly interesting since in each of them the leading players were different – NGOs and activists in Poland, Pirate Parties and activists in Germany, and mainly bottom-up activists in Bulgaria. Nevertheless, the key actors for the diffusion of protest were Brussels-based NGOs that produced expertise and lobbied European policy makers. These transnationally oriented NGOs managed to impose a set of depoliticized frames that were shared across the EU, used in interviews with mainstream media and in lobbying governments. The fourth section of the chapter explores why protest diffusion against ACTA did not take place in the case of Spain. I show that Spanish activists were already very much invested in the anti-austerity protests that had started in 2011 and thus unable to invest time or attention to a single-issue protest. The chapter ends with few important takeaways for activists on how to achieve more sustainable mobilization across borders and not lose control of the diffusion process.
