[Free-sklyarov-uk] Press Release - London and Edinburgh Protests 30 August

[Timothy Baldwin]

On Tuesday 28 August 2001 11:22 pm, jtjm at uk.eurorights.org wrote:

> It is important to stress that we respect absolutely the principal of
> copyright;

A large and growing number of our potential supporters are opposed to 
copyright.

> many of our members are programmers and authors whose works
> enjoy the traditional protections of copyright.

That reads like a statement in favour of copyright.

> we do not condone copyright infringement in any form. 

The Campaign for Digital Rights should  not condemn and probably not condone 
copyright infringement, nor should it support or oppose copyright, i.e. it 
should remain absolutely neutral. Individuals when not representing CFDR are 
of course free to campaign these and other issues. For the CFDR to adopt such 
a position would be to exclude people of the opposite position, we should be 
instead trying to build the largest possible campaign. For example the 
campigain  to renationalise Railtrack would be a lot smaller if it took to 
position the train operating companies should not be nationalised.


Perhaps supporting copyright infringement in relation to acts which are 
currently covered by fair use with respect to physical copies would be 
sensible.

I kindly request that no one makes statements about the position of the CFDR 
which have not been agreed upon.

And remember this is a campaign against (certain provisions of) EUCD and 
similar laws, and the release of those imprisoned under those laws. This is 
not a campiagin for or against copyright, other forms of intellectual 
property, capitalism of anything else.


> Furthermore, by
> effectively prohibiting discussion of the weaknesses of particular
> copy protection schemes, these laws practically guarantee that copy
> protection mechanisms will be weak and easily broken, to the detriment
> of the very authors and musicians whose work they are designed to
> protect.

Are we not against Digital Rights Management, as it inherently restricts fair 
use?

> The Campaign for Digital Rights is working together with industry,
> academics, the Foundation for Information Policy Research
> (http://www.fipr.org/), and similar organisations throughout Europe
> and America.  For more information, mailing lists, et al, see:
> http://uk.eurorights.org/

-- 
Timothy Baldwin
Member of WYLUG, SWP, SA and GR
2nd year Computer Science, University of Leeds