tajasel.org » Open Rights Group

Digital Economy Bill: What You Can Do

tajasel — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:42:40 +0000

The Digital Economy Bill was passed, less a couple of the particularly bad parts on web-blocking and orphan works, but including the damaging Clauses 11-17. The fight is not over, however. The General Election is fast approaching and many of the MPs who voted for this Bill in the undemocratic wash-up period must be campaigned against. What can you do to stop this happening again?

Register to vote. Make sure you do this by April 20th 2010.
Join the Open Rights Group! They are a digital rights advocacy group who aim to “preserve and promote your rights in the digital age”.
Join Democracy Club, a group of volunteers dedicating time to holding electoral candidates to account.
Thank and/or campaign for the 32 MPs standing in the General Election who voted against the Bill.
If your MP voted for the Digital Economy Bill, write to them and ask them why.
Check out how your MP voted before you cast your ballot.
Join ORG’s campaign meetings on Thursday evenings, either in person or by dialling into the conference call. (You will be welcomed regardless of whether you’re a member or not, whatever your political affiliation, as long as you want to fight this legislation.

If you have any further suggestions, please add them in the comments.

UK Music Protest

tajasel — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:58:33 +0000

Photo of DEB protest outside UK Music, originally uploaded by William Marriage.

Supporters of the Open Rights Group were called to arms again today, this time in Soho, Central London.

After meeting people at Tottenham Court Road Tube station, we dished out maps and police helmets and sent them over to British Music House, where shortly afterwards, I arrived with other ORG staff and the large disconnection notice for delivering to Mr Sharkey.

Sadly, shortly after we arrived, the doors were closed on us and we weren’t able to give the notice to Feargal himself, so we held a short photocall and left it on the doorstep for him.

(If you haven’t seen the videos of last week’s protest yet, take a look now: ORG’s is on YouTube, and a supporter uploaded their footage to Vimeo!)

How To Talk To Your MP: Aftermath

tajasel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:39:27 +0000

With the How To Talk To Your MP events over, it’s possibly time for a look back over what happened: as Jim mentioned over on the ORG blog, it was mostly very useful: we think that we managed to get all our points across and that everyone who still had unanswered questions left with a better understanding of the Bill and what they could do about it.

These events came about after we realised that some people talking to their MPs weren’t getting anywhere because they were pushing against the copyright infringement side of the Bill, and we wanted to explain that they’d be better off fighting the due process side of the argument: that is, that disconnecting people without fair trial and allowing the secretary of business to amend copyright law as he saw fit was disproportionate and unfair.

Digital Economy Bill: How To Talk To Your MP

tajasel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:49:29 +0000

Until I get to actually writing new content, this is what I’ve been up to over the last couple of weeks at work. Consider registering if you’re interested, pass on the details to others even if you’re not, and if you’ve missed what this is all about, take a look at my previous posts on the subject.

Would you like to gain the confidence to talk and write to your MP, or rehearse talking to your MP one on one? We can help with this, and more: find out what MPs will ask you, learn how to write to your MP and get a response and meet other people campaigning against disconnection without trial in the Digital Economy Bill.

We believe that a lot of people don’t realise how easy it is to book an appointment to speak to their MP in person, or that doing this is the most effective way of ensuring Parliament knows and understands how unpopular the Digital Economy Bill really is.

We are running several short sessions in which you can try out talking to someone roleplaying the position of an MP and learn how to get your points across in a way that an MP will understand.

We have four events confirmed:
January 23rd in Manchester
January 24th in Edinburgh
January 30th in London

The fourth event will take place in Sheffield on January 27th as part of the Sheffield GeekUp unconference and there will be a choice of two sessions available: to register, see http://undeb-org.eventbrite.com.

All events are free, but booking is *essential* due to limited places. We hope to see you there.