For Immediate Release

Open Rights Group hits the ground running

• Hundreds of cyber-activists fund UK digital rights group
• British author Neil Gaiman joins as Patron
• Group to give evidence to MPs on dangers of digital rights management this Thursday

London, UK - On Christmas Day, over a thousand people pledged to create an organisation “to preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world”. Now, within two weeks of beginning fundraising activity, five hundred supporters have already put their money where their clicks were: paying a fiver a month to ensure that the Open Rights Group becomes the lasting online advocacy group so desperately needed in the UK.

Suw Charman, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, said: “We are committed to giving a voice to the public - creators, consumers and mash-up artists alike - who have, until now, had no representation in discussions about legislation that affects their lives, their livelihoods, and their liberties. Our aims are to increase awareness of digital rights issues, help foster grassroots activity and to preserve and extend civil liberties in the digital age, and I am delighted that so many people are making their pledge support real.”

To assist in their aims, the Open Rights Group has announced multi-award winning author Neil Gaiman as their Patron.

Gaiman, born in Porchester, is best known for his science fiction and fantasy work, including his best-selling graphic novel “The Sandman”. He has also campaigned for many years for authors’ freedoms, winning the Defender of Liberty Award from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in 1997, and writes extensively online.

“We’re in a world in which digital rights, the world of the internet, and the exchange of information is getting more and more important and relevant to all our lives, wherever we are,” said Gaiman. “I’m delighted that there’s now a group of people committed to preserving and extending civil liberties in a digital world and to being sane and sensible as we careen into a digital future. I was honoured to be asked to be Patron of the Open Rights Group, and I look forward to working with them for years to come.”

Gaiman is joined by an Advisory Council, an extensive group of Net experts headed by fellow author Cory Doctorow. London-based Doctorow, who until recently was the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s European Affairs Director, said “Britain needs a home for UK technology activists to converge on, more now than ever. This is, after all, the age of universal surveillance, extremist copyright and the elimination of due process rights. I’m enormously honoured to serve on the Open Rights Groups Advisory Council and am glad to see so many members of the public supporting us in the fight.”

The Open Rights Group joins a flurry of digital rights groups who have sprung up in the last six months in the UK, Ireland and Canada. TJ McIntyre, chairman of Digital Rights Ireland and Law Lecturer at University College Dublin said “We look forward to working with the Open Rights Group on a number of pressing issues which affect both our jurisdictions - data retention, ID card proposals and the plans to make copyright breaches a criminal rather than a civil offence.”

“National digital rights groups are proving to be some of the most effective advocacy organisations around”, said David Fewer of Online Rights Canada. “We look forward to comparing notes and working together with our British cousins”.

This month, the Open Rights Group will be speaking with other organisations on the dangers of digital rights management at the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group hearing on Thursday February 2nd, and holding an open networking event in London on February 7th. Contact Suw Charman below for more details on either event.

Supporters can donate at: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/support-org/

For more information, contact Suw Charman, Executive Director, Open Rights Group.

The Open Rights Group is proud to announce that Cory Doctorow, outgoing European Co-Ordinator for the EFF, novelist and editor of BoingBoing.net, will be our special guest speaker at our second networking evening on 7 Feb 2006.

Don’t let Hollywood hijack your rights
Cory Doctorow

American entertainment companies say they’re fighting piracy, but they’re going at it by punishing the innocent to get at the guilty. A pan-European digital television restrictions proposal will turn the studios from companies that can control copying of movies into companies that can control the design of all digital TV devices, that get to define how big your family is allowed to be, that get to take away all the rights you get under copyright law and sell them back to you, one painful, expensive dribble at a time. It’s not really a business plan: more like a urinary tract infection. Europe’s coming Broadcast Flag will ban open source for digital TV, break the devices in your living room, and turn you into a truly captive audience. Get your torch and pitchfork, for this genuinely sucks — and you shouldn’t take it lying down!

This free event is open to digital rights campaigners, grassroots activists, the press and the general public, so please do send this information to anyone you think may be interested.

Refreshments and nibbles will be provided free of charge.

When: Tuesday 7 February 2006, 6pm–9pm
Where: 01Zero-One Hopkins Street (corner of Peter Street), Soho, London, W1F 0HS
Map: http://www.01zero-one.co.uk/map.htm

Note: 01Zero-One is sometimes a difficult venue to find if you’ve never been there before. On the corner of Hopkins and Peter Street, you’ll see a featureless brick wall, with nothing but a black door in it. That anonymous black door is the one you want — just ring the buzzer and it’ll be opened for you, if it’s not propped open with a brick, that is.

Only 100 people can attend, so please book your place by signing up on the Open Rights Group wiki.

You can subscribe to the Open Rights Group iCal feed via Technorati, or use the non-iCalendar feed.

Our very own Danny O’Brien was interviewed by Wikinews earlier in the week, about digital rights issues in the US. Well, I say, ‘our very own’, but actually we share him with the EFF. Ok, maybe they very kindly share him with us…

Anyway, well worth reading the interview. I’m just sorry I missed being able to contribute.

We are planning the next ORG event for the evening of Tues 7 Feb, at 01Zero-One in Soho again. Keep the evening free, and there’ll be more information on speakers and registration soon.

The Open Rights Group has been asked by the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group to attend its oral evidence gathering session on 2 February. ORG will send three representatives - the maximum allowed - who will be questioned by MPs.

Other groups that have been invited include:

• Society for Computers and Law
• British Library
• Libraries Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA)
• FFII-UK
• Share The Vision
• British Music Rights
• EMI
• AIM
• EMusic.com
• BREAK
• AOL
• BBC
• PACT
• The Publishers Association
• The Film Council
• NCC
• FIPR

It’s notable that there don’t seem to be any consumer electronics companies present.

If you want to see our written presentation, along with others from Kevin Marks, the UK Unix User’s Group, David Weinberger, the FFII and the National Consumer Council, it’s all on the wiki.

The BBC have put together a virtual panel of music industry representatives to answer your questions on DRM, downloading, and any other topic you feel important. The music panel comprises:

• Brad Duea, president of Napster, once the scourge of the music industry and now one of the largest legal music download retailers.
• Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the UK music industry and has been leading the anti-piracy campaign in Britain.
• John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the trade body representing record labels worldwide, which has been instrumental in the global fight against piracy.
• Steve Knott, managing director of HMV UK & Ireland, a leading high street chain that has recently opened its own online download store.

They’ll be publishing the answers on 24 Jan, but I’m really not expecting to hear anything else other than the standard rhetoric that we’ve come to expect from an industry that feels threatened and defensive, but who don’t seem capable of imagining a world where music fans and the music industry can peacefully, profitably and fairly coexist.

What I find most interesting is the focus of the questions that the public are asking on the BBC website - primarily they are excellent questions about DRM and downloading. They are intelligent, incisive, and clearly indicate to the industry that their very own customers are fed up of being treated so badly.

Is ORG a charity?
No, charities are banned from political lobbying. Instead, ORG has been incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, Company No. 05581537.

I want to set up my own standing order with my own online banking. Can I do this?
Yes. Please fill in our form, then choose Standing Order option, and the system will generate a standing order form which includes our bank details and your registration number. You can then use that information to create your own standing order. Please ensure that you include our reference number, so that we know who’s paying us what.

Who is eligible for the concessionary rate?
If you are unemployed, a student, disabled, sick, a pensioner, or for any other reason feel that you would be eligible for the concessionary rate, please use it. We aren’t going to check up on you or demand proof.

Are people who pay the concessionary rate still eligible for Founding 1000 status?
Yes.

I don’t want to give you my personal details, but I want to donate. Can I do this?
Yes. You can either send us a cheque, to Open Rights Group, 12 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9AD, or you can PayPal us at paypal-at-openrightsgroup.org. Please don’t send cash.

I wanted to give you more than £60. Can I do this?
Yes. Send us a cheque, use PayPal, or set up a standing order for more than £5 a month, as above.

Do you have a privacy policy?
Yes.

I filled in a form at the ORG event. What happened to it?
All forms filled in at the ORG event are being processed now. You don’t need to subscribe again. If you have, we will make sure that we don’t take your money twice.

So who’s running ORG then?
The Board and Advisory Council. The Advisory Council continues to grow as we recruit more digital rights experts, so if you want to keep an eye on it, check back regularly.

Dr Fun explains the latest bad EU legislation.

Whether you pledged to support this project or whether you didn’t. We’ve now shaken our internal systems into a state where they might not be pretty, but they should work, and you can now follow through on your promise and support the project financially via paypal, standing order or cheque.

https://secure.openrightsgroup.org/support/

You can read more about levels of support, and the Founding 1000, on the Support ORG page. There is also a FAQ which answers many of the questions that have arisen in the comments.

Thank you all very much for helping us get this far. We now have much much more to do.