** My Comments Inline **
On Oct 17, 2009, at 9:34 PM, Eddan Katz wrote:
Hi Sunil. Warm Greetings FOSS-Comm-ers.
Hi Eddan :o)
First, let me say that I can not think of a more flattering
association in which EFF could come up than under the subject thread
on Gandhi. Let me also, before going on, introduce my esteemed
colleagues on the international team at EFF - Gwen Hinze, the
International Policy Director at EFF (coming back from OECD meetings
in Paris) and Danny O'Brien, the International Outreach Coordinator
(who just came back from an Internet Law workshop in Kazakhstan).
Lol.
On the narrower questions of methodology, I dare say that EFF's
activities do try to honor the history of the great social
movements. We have a deep respect for the institution of law and a
fundamental belief that the public interest ought to guide the
shaping of the law. In the knowledge economy, those digital rights
and freedoms coincide with technology and innovation policy that
respects the open infrastructure of the Internet. The public
interest in the information society includes the preservation of
human dignity as well as promotion of economic development.
Completely agree.
Some of you may be familiar with EFF, but let me describe at your
indulgence the different parts of the organization that are combined
in our work. Our legal team has been engaged in a long series of
impact litigation cases over the last 19 years on surveillance,
digital copyright, freedom of information, and other digital rights
issues. Led by an activism team, we create public education websites
and run web campaigns, disseminate news, and help shape public
debate. We often work in strategic coalitions ranging in focus from
telecom regulation to freedom of information and privacy to
intellectual property, open access, etc.. We also have a technology
team that does original research and analysis on the technologies
whose specific implementation frames the social, legal, and policy
issues.
It will be great if you could shed some more light on how EFF is
structured...
Internationally, we work at international decision-making bodies of
the UN, the EU, the OECD, etc. on the major dossiers whose norm-
setting activities have global impact. We also often work in
collaboration with domestic groups working in their own countries on
copyright reform, privacy, cybercrime, and other legislative and
regulatory developments. Sometimes this takes place in the back
channels, other times as a joint effort, and and often in informal
questions and exchange of information. There are no other 'branches'
of EFF and we are not formally affiliated with groups such as
Electronic Frontier Finland, EF Australia, EF Bulgaria, etc. though
we communicate and work with them when the opportunity arises.
I guess the legal framework of every country is different. It will be
difficult (if not impossible) to have branches.
We have already been in contact and have had the opportunity to work
with several like-minded groups from India and we are very excited
about the Center for Internet and Society's great work, and
impressed about it having a real impact so soon into its existence.
So even though there is not an "EFF" in India per se, we are very
much aware of the great groundswell of activity in India around
FOSS, digital rights, and access to knowledge as well as many
relevant innovative ICT for Development initiatives. In addition to
the Center for Internet & Society, I've had the pleasure of working
with great people from the Alternative Law Forum, the Lawyers
Collective, OLPC India, Bangalore National University, M S
Swaminathan Research Foundation, the members of the WIPO India
delegation, and many others.
Brilliant!
We would be delighted to find ways to work with you, these various
organizations and communities, individually and in coalition. One
sustainable way of doing so we've tried in the past could be a
targetted campaign on something like the criminal provisions for
copyright mentioned below, or the privacy implications of the
computer crime act, or another related policy issue on the
legislative or regulatory agenda.
Eddan, FOSSCOMM has just been through the discussions on a charter.
More of it here: http://fosscomm.in/Charter The charter is to be dove-
tailed by SIGs that would work in their own area of expertise. Though
the charter is fairly fixed in principle, the nature and the work cut
out for the SIGs remains a bit hazy. That is why I was interested in
how the EFF operates with a wider set of principles and areas...
Thanks again for the introduction.
I have joined the FOSS-comm listserv as well in order to continue
the conversation and look forward to finding future opportunities
for collaboration.
Nice to have you on board :-)
Cheers,
Amol Hatwar
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