Re: Setting up a well-funded Digital Rights campaign organisation

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005, Philip Hunt wrote:

> 1. Is the idea to set up a new organisation, separate to FFII? It seems to me 
> that FFII has done a good job with the software patents directive, and it's
> not obvious to me what the benefits of a new separate organisation would be.

Its inability to work on copyrights would appear to be a good reason to
support the creation of an organisation additional to FFII (briefly:
statistically, FFII's financial supporters on the swpat issue disfavour
copyright reform).

Pluralism is a value in itself.

Thirdly, the pledge by its wording does not exclude giving the cash to a
UK branch of FFII, or to FFI directly.
 
> 2. The pledge says "to support an organisation that will campaign for digital 
> rights in the UK"; but most intellectual property law comes from Brussels
> these days, so isn't it equally important, or more important, to campaign
> on a European level?

You need to have both the national and European levels covered due to the
way the EU structures work (not a problem, say, in the US, where state
entities have no formal say in federal matters), but I guess to the extent
that you're saying that people setting up a digital rights campaigning
organisation for the UK are in for a very rude shock about how their
country is now goverened, I agree with you.

Let not the best be the enemy of the good, though.

Mk