[Free-sklyarov-uk] IRC Minutes for meeting held 7 Nov 2001

[Martin Keegan]

Minutes of IRC meeting held Wed 7 Nov 2001, 20:00 till well past midnight


Action items are enumerated at the bottom of the minutes under "Action".

The session log is available at the following URL:
http://uk.eurorights.org/resources/irc/sklyarov-uk_20011107.txt

This log has been edited; see under "Logfile" in these minutes for details.

The arrangement of these minutes is topological rather than chronological,
which would just be chaotic.


Present
=======

Peter Clay 		(pete)
Alistair Davison	(AlistairD)
Alex Fletcher		(tolon)
Douglas Fraser		(Dougie)
Telsa Gwynne		(telsa)
Chuck Heffner		(FatChuck)
Al Howat		(Al)
Phil Hunt		(philh)
Martin Keegan		(mk270)
Martin Ling		(mjl)
Gerry Magennis		(gerry-away)
Joao Miguel Neves	(jneves)
Jim Peters		(jim_uazu)
Hanna Wallach		(hanna)


Matters discussed
=================

Discussion took place on the following matters, each generally preceded by
a report from Jim Peters or Martin Keegan:

	1) CDs
	2) Tone of the website
	3) European campaign organisation status
	4) EUCD
	5) Dmitri Sklyarov
	6) CD database

1) CDs
	It was confirmed that the new Natalia Imbruglia CD was controlled
	via the Cactus Data Shield system; there was no warning label on
	the CD.

	Dan Ackroyd is off-line, having left for Canada on business for
	a number of months. Dan has been heavily involved in many aspects
	of CDR.

	Trading Standards officers were due to contact Dan in relation to
	the CD issue. It was decided that Jim Peters would start a new
	complaint in the Birmingham area, and Martin Keegan would
	determine whether resuscitating Dan Ackroyd's complaint would
	be beneficial, which would happen in parallel.

	Jim Peters is to be interviewed by NOW TV.

	There still exists a requirement for an automated database. See
	below.

	Jim Peters is preparing a new leaflet, and has seen Alistair
	Davison's efforts in this area.

	Jim Peters is to prepare a press release relating to the Imbruglia
	Imbruglio. A potentially separate document would be produced
	intended to be left as a "please take one" in public libraries.

	The merits of involving Watchdog in the CD campaign were discussed.
	The discussions on this point were inconclusive.

	It was reported that much less public interest exists in the US
	on the CD issue.

2) Website tone
	The website was criticised as being too alarmist, and offering
	little outside protesting (that is, not for people who would
	prefer to write to their MPs rather than shout in the streets).

	Al Howat agreed to look at what could be done to tone things
	down.

	CUT (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) and EFF were cited
	as examples worth looking at.

	The efficacy of the "Fax Your MP" scheme was called into question
	during the discussion, though consideration of FYMP as an example
	of how to proceed would be useful.

	It was stated that there should be a "Five reasons to join CDR"
	page, possibly the front page.

3) EU campaign
	More manpower is needed in the efforts to kickstart a European
	campaigning organisation. Julian Midgley and Martin Keegan have
	been involved in these efforts but the process keeps stalling,
	as they seem not to proceed without central CDR members banging
	the drums, and no-one busy with CDR has enough time to devote
	to them. The EUCD clock is ticking, so something needs to be
	done soon.

	It was reported that eurolinux.org is condemning the European
	Patent Office for what it terms a "coup", and noted that
	the view of the UK Patent Office on this matter should be sought.

	Jaoa Miguel Neves turned up on IRC to attend our meeting and was
	interested in co-operation between CDR and his nascent Portuguese
	group, however he was unable to participate in the conversation
	as he had to leave as it began. He has since contacted Martin Keegan.

4) EUCD
	The consultation period on the UK implementation of EUCD is
	expected to begin in six weeks and last another four (later
	information received suggests the latter figure should be
	eight).

	It was noted that FIPR Director Caspar Bowden is off to the
	States for a conference on the issues and may be able to
	get us some academic backup from the experts over there.

	It was asserted that CDR needs a media plan for EUCD 
	implementation activities, and allied organisations.

	It was proposed that CDR should have an EUCD taskforce, possibly
	with EU-wide membership.

5) Dmitri Sklyarov
	Development is expected in the Sklyarov court case on 26 November
	2001. It is necessary to discover what this development is, and
	determine our response, if necessary (protest, vigil, etc)

5) CD database
	There was much technical discussion on the matter of the CD
	database for automatic recording of details of corrupt CDs.
	Jim Peters and Martin Ling are to be working on this, and Jim
	will send Martin Ling a specification.


General matters discussed
=========================

Julian Midgley agreed by phone to be involved in encouraging people who 
have formerly been active in CDR to become more active again.

Dan Ackroyd has had to reduce his involvement in CDR to almost nothing,
following a move to Canada. Dan has been involved in organising protests,
investigating usage-controlled CDs, talking to the media, the CDR website,
production of placards, distribution of leaflets, pursuing a Trading
Standards complaint, etc, so this is a significant loss.

It was noted that CDR wasn't very good at doing the things it had agreed
to do on IRC, and hinted at that steps were being taken to rectify this
(the hinter was unsure whether he should be talking about Peter Clay's
move to the position of "person who makes sure things get done", which
has since been announced by Julian Midgley on the mailing list).
 
It was mentioned that Julian Midgley proposes to set up some sort of
Advogato-like system for CDR.


Logfile
=======

One participant made statements unaware that logs of the IRC session
would be posted to the web; a number of words from those comments, in
particular two names, have been redacted from the log, though the 
associated meta-discussion has been retained. The redacted log and the note
accompanying it have been PGP signed, and a signature for the unexpurgated
log is included.


Action
======

In no particular order, the formal action items from the IRC meeting are
as follows below. Implied action items are not included.

1. Advance the processes with Trading Standards - JP, MK
2. CD press releases - JP, JTJM
3. Check the UK Patent Office's view on the EPO "coup"
4. Find out what is happening in the Sklyarov case on Nov 26
5. Determine response to Sklyarov developments
6. Work out what the CDR wants to do w.r.t. a European Campaign org - JTJM, MK
7. Recommend changes to website to tone it down - AH
8. Recommend changes to website to open CDR to more passive activists - AH
9. Find more CDs and test them
10. Al Howat to get in touch with JTJM re letter writing day
11. Fix the website's IRC minutes page - MK
12. Contact people who have fallen away from CDR to see if they can help - JTJM
13. Send spec of CD database to Martin Ling - JP
14. Contact FIPR's IPR lawyer friend - MK, JTJM
15. EUCD media plan
16. Establish an EUCD taskforce - GM, MK