Protestors call for end to internet "censorship"

More than 300 people braved minus 7 degree temperatures to protest in Luxembourg's capital against a new anti-counterfeiting law which they believe is tantamount to censorship.

"Whoever does not jump is for ACTA!", the crowd of protestors chanted in unison, jumping on the spot in the Place d'Armes on Saturday.

The demonstration echoes scores of similar events being held throughout Europe against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was signed in January by 22 EU member states.

The law is aimed at curbing copyright infringement on the Internet, the sale of counterfeit goods, and other piracy-related issues in a bid to protect intellectual property.

However, it has been widely criticised by campaign group anonymous and Luxembourg's Pirate Party, who believe that ACTA infringes civil rights, privacy and stifles innovation and competitiveness.

The demonstration in Luxembourg was called by the Pirate Party in a bid to pressure deputies into rejecting the agreement.

Party president Sven Clement told wort.lu: "The free Internet is in danger. We are there all together-zero temperatures, to say to stop taking us for idiots".

But it was not just the Pirate Party which put their weight behind the protest. General secretary of the young liberal democrats gave his view of ACTA to a responsive crowd on Saturday.

He said: “[ACTA] is a pact forged in the interests of firms and not of society. Given the enormous scope for interpretation in the text that remains, how could the government sign it when it does not have any information.”