Paul's Web Space 2.1

CPSR Opposes WIPO Broadcast Treaty Proposal

I'm on the Board of Directors of an organization called Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), and am the primary activist around issues of Intellectual Property (for lack of a better term). We work with numerous other organizations on these issues, including Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech).

I just helped CPTech draft a letter to Congress opposing a new treaty that the U.S. Government is proposing to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and encouraging them to require public comments on this process. Read more about it on the CPTech web site.    Link: http://www.cpsr.org/issues/ip/wipobroadcastletter

¶ 11:11 AM | Permalink | | | Links to this post
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Operation Ceasefire

I know this is a little late, but last weekend, I participated in a great march on Washington, where we showed out in force to tell the Bush Administration and everyone else that there is a large movement in this country opposing the war in Iraq. This oppposition may come from many directions, for many reasons, but it's becoming more and more obvious that it is wide and deep.

This was the biggest anti-war protest in Washington at least since the current war of agression in Iraq, and perhaps since the Vietnam war. Estimates range from 100,000 to 300,000 people, and I believe that it was somewhere right in the middle. Protesters marched for 4-5 hours around the White house and down portions of Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, to end up near the site of the second major portion of the day's events, the Operation Ceasefire concert and rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument.

This second event was particularly cool - often large demonstrations include music along with the speeches and other information, but this rally the focus was more on the music. And not mainstream or standard protest folk, but a diverse mix of local and national acts. The high points for me were Thievery Corporation, Steve Earle, The Bellrays with Wayne Kramer, the Coup, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Thievery Corporation in some ways stole the show - their set was far longer than anyone else's, and the sound and video shows were much more attuned to their music, but they organized the Operation Ceasefire stage show after all. Also interesting was the emceeing of Jello Biafra (formerly of the Dead Kennedys, now singing with the Melvins, and still fronting the Alternative Tentacles label.) After my friends left, I volunteered a little, begging money from the crowd for an hour, all for another t-shirt to add to the collection.

Check out the pics taken by my friend Fritz Myer: at this march, and at the last big anti-war rally (starting with one of me and my partner Julie).    Link: http://www.opceasefire.org/

¶ 10:39 PM | Permalink | | | Links to this post
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