Comments on: ORG digital rights event update

By: john

john — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 16:58:02 +0000

Sorry wasn’t clear - data retention; the LIBE report is being voted on the 12th and all the Parliamentary groups meet on Tuesday to decide their positions. There is some interesting new stuff on Statewatch about recent discussions after the JHA Council on the 1st for those that are interested in this kind of thing. Christ knows what is going to happen with this one, the Council still isn’t anywhere near agreeing internally according to the docs on Statewatch so perhaps they might have to accept what comes out of the Parliament. V complex…
I would also highlight the fact that the Commission is calling for input on the Telecoms Regulatory Package (http://tinyurl.com/8gss5) review, which is pretty important as it is the framework for infrastructure regulation in the EU. More worrying I would have thought is the proposed review of Television without Frontiers which could have enormous impact for digital content online, I’m quite surprised it hasn’t been mentioned on here before. The Commission’s goals are somewhat unclear to say the least and could result in filtering and online content regulation to comply with their stated public policy goals. More on Euractiv http://tinyurl.com/77xkj and Ofcomwatch http://tinyurl.com/bqczz

By: Simon Gibbs

Simon Gibbs — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 12:14:32 +0000

@john, you don’t say what issue you are talking about… Copyright? Data retention?

By: john

john — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 11:17:55 +0000

i would point out if you want to send a letter to MEPs then you better have done it by monday as all the groups decide their position a week before the plenary vote

By: Kevin Marks

Kevin Marks — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 10:18:31 +0000

Levine, Coxall and Mailer started out slumming and moved on to trolling.
ORG should indeed be a ‘big tent’, as these issues do not divide cleanly along party or ideological lines. I’ve mentioned before that there is a useful commonality with libertarian campaigners.
However, lets leave these self-indulgent self-styled Troskyites out of it.
As a gedankenexperiment, let’s briefly grant their nihilistic, ‘grind the faces of the poor so they rebel’ premise. For that kind of inhuman conspiracy to work, you have to keep it secret, you dozy fuckwits.
If you want to stage a long march through the institutions, bog off and do it quietly.

By: Suw Charman

Suw Charman — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:55:52 +0000

Thank you, Simon. For the sake of transparency, I work about three days a week for clients, and about three days a week for ORG. Without the former, I couldn’t possibly do the latter, but sometimes both ORG and my clients demand a lot from me simultaneously. The last couple of weeks, and next week, it’s been like that. It really isn’t that I’ve deserted the blog, it’s that I’m too busying *doing constructive stuff*.

Soon, however, you will see the results of said constructive stuff, and hopefully then you’ll agree it was time well spent.

By: Simon Gibbs

Simon Gibbs — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:51:26 +0000

Suw, good to hear! and yes, while I can’t speak for anyone else, I do appreciate that the whole life-running thing is important too!

By: Suw Charman

Suw Charman — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:43:15 +0000

Simon, yes, I’m planning on writing a summary just as soon as I can. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in trying to get admin things sorted out, plus deal with press enquiries, and collaborate with other NGOs on data retention. Not to mention running my own life and earning the money that has allowed me to do this for the last five months.

The quietude isn’t a sign of deadness, it’s a sign of being very busy being alive.

By: Nick Mailer

Nick Mailer — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:38:52 +0000

Must say, this website and the general lack of responsiveness in hardly encouraging. It’s ludicrous that my “travesty” remains one of the few records of the event. And before someone says “you try better”, I refer you to the CUT website (http://www.unmetered.org.uk/). And it was all done by hand - no bloggery! Tsk.

By: Simon Gibbs

Simon Gibbs — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:34:30 +0000

Can we please hear an official summary of what happened at the meeting? It has been more than 48 hours… is somebody injured?

By: Levine

Levine — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 17:31:53 +0000

Well, Mailer has elucidated a set of practical steps he is interested in seeing pursued. Logically they appear sound, though empirically I am still dubious. However, as the comments show, people seem to be afraid of debating the dubious benefits of the holy trinity of blogs, mailing lists and press releases which form the default actions that groups like ORG, AFFS and the FSFE all resort to.

I had assumed we all know what the problems are (patents, copyrights, bad media companies, privacy of data etc). If you don’t know what the problems are, you are not paying attention and you can go back to watching I’m A Celebrity. I don’t think we need another meeting to produce a list of what we are all concerned about. It comes up time and time again at every one of these type of meetings. It is getting dull.

I had assumed the ORG was the nascent EFF-Europe or intended to become the nascent EFF. You may not agree with the EFF’s remit but at least, in its own small way, it is organised and doing something other than putting bits of white card board on a wall.

I freely admit that currently, in a full time job, it is not my priority to lead the faithful into jihad against the media companies. But I will donate freely to an organisation that actually likes it is going to achieve something. The current signs from the meeting on Monday were not positive, but I am ever an optimist.