[d@DCC] Message to MP for review

[Russell McOrmond]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Liss Jeffrey wrote:

> I think one reason why there is not more progress made on collaborative 
> efforts is that no one is really interested in compromising, instead it is 
> easier somehow to stay narrow, purist and sectarian, not finding ways to 
> make coalitions and alliances. Too many small leaders and too few teams of 
> co-leaders or coalitions joining together for common ends. Lots of ego, 
> even though we seek sincerely to accomplish the public interest.
> Sigh -- perhaps I am the only one seeing things this way.

  You are not the only one seeing things this way, but I do think we are
making progress.

  You may notice that one of the very visible new organizational people in
this list, Neil Leyton, is a musician and primary for an independent
label.  A few weeks from now I will be acting as tour-guide for Susan
Crean at an Open Source conference in Toronto.  These are just two of the
obvious successes we have had in connecting with other creator
communities.

  The "we" in this list at the beginning were technical people concerned
about "Legal protection for TPM", joined together under the "Canada DMCA
Opponents" name.  This is expanding to discussing far more than just that
issue, although I happen to agree with Matthew Skala and others who
suggest that we not ever forget our roots.

  While it may be seen as uncompromising, I am willing to compromise on
almost anything else except "legal protection for TPM".  I believe that if
we loose on that battle then few of the other reforms will ultimately
matter one way or the other.

  The "we" has also very easily included user communities, and it has not 
been hard to convince those communities we are on their side.

  I am hoping that over time that Neil Leyton will be able to talk with
more people in the independent label community, and convince them of
shared interests.  From there it may be possible to reach more and more
musicians.  I am hoping the same to happen with Susan and others in the
more traditional writer community.

  Can we get past the two-sided "copyright holders vs others" of the past?  
We may be wrong, but I think that a number of us in this list believe that 
reaching out to people and organizations traditionally thought to be at 
two extremes (creators and their audiences) will help.   I believe there 
will always be disagreements, but I think for the most part we have more 
we can agree on than we disagree on.

  While I have been told it is closed minded, I don't ever expect to make
alliances with associations of big-labels like CRIA or big "software
manufacturing"  associations like BSA/CAAST.  Then again, I could be
proven wrong.  I try to use the Open Source method of "release early,
release often, and accept patches" approach and thus should be expected to
be wrong from time to time.


> So if a larger set of issues appeals to this group, like digital commons, 
> public domain and innovations in sustainable ways of creation and knowledge 
> sharing (including open source and free software) and if any way could be 
> found to move away from the narrower focus, perhaps there are options for 
> cooperation that have not yet been explored.

  This will be part of the learning in this group.  We will need to think
about whether the "we" of this group should stay focused on specific
issues and make alliances with other groups in areas of commonality, or
try to tackle things internally.  I am more of a fan of the former than
the latter, and believe that connecting a "web of organizations" is more
beneficial than monolithic ones.

  This group will find its own path over time, so I'm going to try to not
second-guess things.

  I believe we need to connect communities.  I was told in email that this
may even include making connections with people at CRIA, CAAST, and other
such organizations at some point.  I don't have to believe it at this
point, given anything is possible.


  I think that in that direction that making better connections with CATA
will be a shorter-term and more realistic goal.  This group has a
diversity of membership, including a merger with CAIP (Canadian
Association of Internet Providers - http://www.cata.ca/caip.html ), so
include creators (natural person and corporate, given I'm told not it
isn't politically correct to carve out corporations ;-), intermediaries,
and "users".

  It is great that some of the people who have been involved for a longer 
time are willing to help those of us just beginning.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 "Make it legal: don't litigate, use creative licensing" campaign.
 A modern answer to P2P: http://www.flora.ca/makelegal200403.shtml
 Canadian File-sharing Legal Information Network http://www.canfli.org/

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