[free-sklyarov] Proposal -- Start an Online Petition Drive Regarding Sklyarov Arrest

[noring at olagrande.net]

Hello,

As one who helped with the anti-CDA petition drive a few
years ago which got about 130,000 signatures, I propose
that we start an online petition drive concerning Sklyarov,
Adobe and/or the DMCA. (I recall there being at least one
web site for the purpose of running online petitions so
we could use such a service or simply put a web form up
somewhere -- I prefer the former.)

Of course, we need to decide upon:

1) Does it make any sense to devote energy to it?

2) If so, what should be the wording of the petition
   statement? Who and what should it be focused
   towards?

3) How do we promote the petition to get the
   general net community interested in it and to
   e-sign it?


Regarding 1), of course I believe it will be useful. It
serves three important functions:

a) It promotes awareness of the situation and the Big
   Picture behind it to the general net community (one
   result is to bring new activists into the battle, as
   well as the petition alone brings more news media
   coverage -- this happened with the anti-CDA petition),

b) It provides a way for concerned citizens to do
   *something* (it is easy to sign a petition while
   for most doing anything more is difficult for
   whatever reason such as lack of time), and it is
   well-known that once a person does something,
   they have psychologically committed themselves
   to the cause, and will become more aware of
   this and similar civil liberties issues.

c) It is a morale booster (provided the number of
   signatures is adequate) to those in the trenches
   fighting the DMCA and the prosecution of Dmitry.
   Of course, Dmitry himself will be very appreciative
   since he needs to really know a lot of people out
   there are on his side.

Let me make it clear that the petition is not likely to
change the minds of the Feds where they will decide not to
prosecute Dmitry (but it will make them aware that many eyes
are looking at everything they are doing -- the psychological
impact on the DoJ cannot be understated), nor will it sway
the courts in their future deliberations regarding Dmitry
and DMCA in general (it might sway Adobe's position, though,
and might even convince a few Congresspersons to take action
to try to defang DMCA through legislation.) However, the
benefits of a) to c) above are adequate to justify the
effort, in my opinion.

Regarding 2), the petition statement wording must be very
carefully worded -- concise, non-conspiratorial/non-libelous
and moderate in tone, must focus on the important issues, and
of course to state something we "all" can agree upon, rather
than trying to be too extreme. It must also convey reference
sources for the interested person to look up and study the
issues surrounding the DMCA before deciding to e-sign the
petition.

Regarding 3), we certainly need an aggressive campaign to "get
out the vote". We will need a couple dozen or more core
people to circulate the petition to relevant online forums/
lists/boards/newsgroups etc., and to solicit others to pass
it on to their friends and so on. There are probably other
ways to promote it as well (geez, if we can get Matt Drudge
to report on this petition, we'd get several hundred thousand
signatures from that alone!)

We also need to decide what we do with all these signatures
(of course, we have to ensure email address privacy in some
way) once we collect them, and how to maximize the impact of
what we did collect.

Finally, we need to act and get this out within hours, not
days, since we have momentum at the moment, and much interest,
but this is fleeting, and we must strike while the iron is
hot -- if anything, the petition will keep the momentum going
as I observed with the CDA.


Since Shari Steele at EFF is a subscriber to this list,
hopefully she will weigh in with her thoughts on the pros
and cons of this proposed petition drive. If EFF feels
it is not a good idea, then I will go along with their
view and withdraw my proposal.

Jon Noring