The Case for an 'Irish' EFF

national | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Thursday August 04, 2005 14:33

by redjade

The Hiberno-Blogosphere is moving towards this idea...

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was created to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. EFF is the first to identify threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression in the digital age."

The EFF are an NGO who work to protect the established rights and liberties of the ordinary Joe Soap public in this age of computers. Their campaigns tend to cover such areas as patent law, copyright, DRM, file-sharing, the broadcasting flag and e-voting. A small staff (funded by donations) and a network of volunteer supporters form the backbone of the EFF, backed by pro-bono legal work from people like Eben Moglen. In an environment dominated by Big Business lobby groups, bought politicians and corporate media compromised by their reliance on advertisers, the importance of a credible counterweight like the EFF cannot be underestimated. And that, is where we come to the relevance of this to Ireland.

Quite simply, there is no body fulfilling this important role in Ireland. There are worthy solo efforts by individuals like Irish Times journalist Karlin Lillington (who has covered Data Retention and other topics) and TJ McIntyre (who could perhaps claim to be our Groklaw). And there's good work by a few single-issue groups like Ireland Offline. But there's no one organisation authoritative as the 'go-to' media contact to speak out against bad government IT policy, or even to push-back against lobbying from such bodies as the (Microsoft-run) ICT Ireland. (For bloggers too, we're in dire need of a source of good pro-bono legal advice - Gavin and Sarah Carey (follow the links) were only the first forebodings of what's going to arrive, sooner or later)

A case in point is the crisis over the recent attempt to ram through US-style software patents. In the UK and Europe there were various organisations who mobilised to educate their public representatives in the face of concerted FUD from the large US computer corporations (such as you-know-who). Whereas here in Ireland we had (drumrolls...) Karlin and her fellow columnists, making a valuable contribution in the Irish Times - good writers, who grasp the essentials firmly - but restricted to their Friday columns, tucked away in the business supplement. Online there were only bloggers like Karlin herself, Michael Turley, Babblogue, Antoin, Aehso and your own humble Editor trying to raise the profile of this issue.

[....]

Call it what you like, we badly need an Irish organisation like the EFF.

click here for links and more info...
http://freestater.blogspot.com/2005/08/case-for-irish-eff.html

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Comments (5 of 5)

Irish Bloggers & IRL-EFF ( SIPTU Blogger Union?)

Fri Aug 05, 2005 13:07

Public discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irishblogs/

----
from IrishBlogs mailing list....

Mick calls for an Irish Bloggers Union or something to protect Bloggers:
http://www.p45blogs.net/blog_snorkeller/archives/002228.html

Damien has been asking for an Irish EFF:
http://www.mulley.net/archives/000570.html

as has Bernie:
http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2005/04/eff_ireland.html

Freestater agrees too:
http://freestater.blogspot.com/2005/08/case-for-irish-eff.html

Dick is also giving backing to something to protect us bloggers and maybe
protect everyone on broader digital issues:
http://backseatdrivers.blogspot.com/2005/08/oreilly-blogs-and-eff.html

I started a thread on boards.ie too:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=286105

More on the proposed EFF Ireland

Sat Aug 06, 2005 13:11

Thursday, August 04, 2005
More on the proposed EFF Ireland
The question of whether we should set up a national version of the Electronic Frontier Foundation is attracting a good deal of comment from different parties across the Irish corner of the Net today (see Damien Mulley, Dick O'Brien and Boards.ie). This is a sign of healthy interest in the issue, which is encouraging to see.

The blogger-protection angle in this is being covered pretty well over in the Back Seat Drivers thread. But I'd like to add a comment on the discussion over at Boards, which has been tackling the wider concerns which the EFF could be expected to cover (I'm not, alas, going to register at Boards). In particular, part of what Antoin posted:

click here to read more and find links...
http://freestater.blogspot.com/2005/08/more-on-proposed-eff-ireland.html

Hiberno-Blogosphere discuss an IRL-EFF

Sat Aug 06, 2005 16:05

I’ve been around this track a few times, and it is extremely difficult to put something coherent and self-sustaining together. A lot of problems seem to arise around funding, direction and management.

Rather than trying to build a completely new organization from scratch, I think we should move forward by supporting the existing organizations who are doing good work in this area.

For example....
http://www.eire.com/2005/08/04/defending-digital-rights-in-ireland/

Copying CDs to iPod is illegal in Ireland?

Sun Aug 07, 2005 13:35

Time for more illegal copying

EVERY TIME I MOVE, I copy things as back-up and today the process continues. As Adrian Weckler reminds me, when I copy my CDs onto minidisc, my iPod and onto my computer, I violate Irish copyright law. Dick Doyle, the Irish Recorded Music Association's (Irma) "reiterated Irma's view that copying music from CDs onto iPods and computers remained illegal in Ireland under copyright law. He said that while tracks downloaded from iTunes website contained a licence to copy the song, no such provision existed in Irish law for music copied directly from CDs".

more at
http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2005/08/time_for_more_i.html

also see
Irish Digital Rignts
http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2005/08/irish_digital_r.html

illegal ipods

by bolox

Sun Aug 07, 2005 13:50

so everyone using an ipod is more than likely doing it illegally and should be arrested walking down the street

and sales of ipods should plummet!! but they will probably change the law before that happens - in case ipod shops profits are affected

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The Case for an 'Irish' EFF

Comments (5 of 5)