I think you’re right in some ways, but there was very little concern about ACTA for the preceding 4 years of negotiations, despite regular attention and some press coverage.

I think the SOPA protests emboldened a handful of activists and put pressure on legislators who realised they might not want to put their names to this. But you’re right: this was much more motivated by street-level anger than being run from corporate level.

Also, I would be cautious about claims that what happened in US against SOPA was a significant factor in EU against ACTA. For starters, vast majority of the people who went out to protest weren\’t even aware of SOPA and PIPA. Geeks and nerds might follow tech news from the US (where tech happens, after all), but not the average Joe Shmo (or Jan Kowalski ;).

Moreover, the opposition to ACTA in Europe – or indeed in Poland, where a mass opposition ignited and was the strongest – has manifested much differently than the anti-SOPA movement in the US. We hardly had any voluntary website blackouts or pressure from internet companies on lawmakers. Our process was much more grass-roots and civic. First, \”hacker\” attacks (mainly DDoS, some defacements) on government websites, then lots of mainstream media attention, then street protests, which fueled more media attention and public debate, which fueled bigger street protests. And then other countries picked up the bug – with Germany being the only other country with significant street protests (in the tens of thousands).