This is really incredible. Apparently IFPI (the international RIAA, basically) penned a letter to European Parliament members concerning the widespread ACTA protests claiming that these "protests silence the democratic process."

Over the past two weeks, we have seen coordinated attacks on democratic institutions such as the European Parliament and national governments over ACTA. The signatories to this letter and their members stand against such attempts to silence the democratic process. Instead, we call for a calm and reasoned assessment of the facts rather than the misinformation circulating.

That's quite a statement. We'd heard some SOPA/PIPA supporters hint at views like that, but not quite so blatant. Let's be clear: the protests and the public speaking out are the democratic process. They're not silencing the democratic process in any way. To suggest that people speaking out over their own viewpoint somehow silences the process, is to redefine "the democratic process" to be something entirely different than what most people believe.