Manchester hosted only one of hundreds of global demonstrations today against the mistrusted Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Several dozen activists from Anonymous, Occupy Manchester and other groups turned up at Piccadilly Gardens, even as others from their legions protested in front of the Dianetics Centre down the road at Deansgate. There were many large anti-ACTA events in other cities around the world. London saw 200 protestors (according to the BBC).

ACTA is seen by its opponents as a measure designed to allow traditional media (film studios, music company consortia, dinosaur broadcast industry, etc) to try to gain control of the internet which, in its current form, they find impossible to commandeer and capitalise on. The web they are fighting to avoid is, they say, one where choice is proscribed and freedoms taken away.

Supporters of ACTA claim that there is too much copyright infringement going on, and countless governments have been pressured by the US to sign the agreement – though Germany, Poland, Slovenia and many others are now finally realising the legislation’s much wider implications for freedom of speech and web censorship.

The video interviews (below) were with activists in Manchester who put their case to economicsurvivor.net: