ACTA, PIPA, SOPA: Lessons to be Learned From a series of Dead Draft Laws

ACTA, PIPA and SOPA shared the objective of strengthening copyright enforcement and that of political failure. The campaigns resulting in this failure look rather different at first glance. While ACTA saw powerful demonstrations in Poland, Germany and other countries, PIPA/SOPA was brought down by a combined effort of civil society and Internet industry. Its tipping point was a blackout day organized by the English Wikipedia, Reddit and others, a genuine online campaign that attracted the attention of millions of users. A closer look at the evolution of both campaigns reveals that a distinction between offline and online mobilization is not helpful. Not only had both movements been prepared for years, they were also linked. Lev-Aretz (2012) suggests that the massive mobilization against PIPA/SOPA reflected unrelated events such as the Arab spring and the occupy movement. The arguably most important link between offline and online protests concerns discursive framing strategies, which easily travel across communities and countries. The significant role of framing strategies in the field of copyright regulation is well known (Sell & Prakash 2004). As Haunss & Kohlmorgen (2009) have shown, semantic frames can be more influential than traditional forms of lobbying. With the spread of the Internet, political mobilization through agenda setting has become important for all actors involved in copyright regulation. However, the discursive dynamics, and more importantly, the role of the Internet therein, are not well understood yet. Based on Lynggaard (2011 2007), my paper argues that in order to overcome the merely instrumental perception of the Internet in the analysis of online campaigns a distinction needs to be made between general discursive structures and specific strategies. As I will show, the Internet has come to be associated with principal values such as freedom of expression that amplify campaigns against legislations suspected to restrict such values.