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

[Will Doherty]

Worded as you have it below,
the online petition idea is great
and EFF will definitely support it and
publicize it once we get
petition text that works for us
and the community of activists here
and elsewhere (which should not be difficult!).

Anyone have the cycles to draft
something?  Feel free to crib from
the materials already on the EFF
website.

Keep up the amazing work!

Free Dmitry,

Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation - Protecting rights in the digital age
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At 09:36 AM 7/20/2001 -0500, noring at olagrande.net wrote:
>[Repost to free-sklyarov for one last time...if no
>groundswell of interest I will withdraw my proposal.]
>
>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