Message to Electronic Frontier Foundation

From: adam beecher
Sent: 01 February 2003 17:02
To: Ren Bucholz, Activist, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Subject: Irish electronic frontiers...

Hi Ren,

My name is Adam Beecher and I represent a group of people in Ireland concerned about electronic freedom issues in our country. A colleague of mine, Karlin Lillington, was advised by the EFF that you may be able to help us organise ourselves. I would very much appreciate your help and advice in getting ourselves from a "group of people" to a "representative organisation". I'm not sure exactly what you can or can't do for us, so I'll try to give you a simple overview of where we are now and where we want to go.

The compilation of our group was prompted by Karlin Killington, a freelance journalist who is seriously concerned with motions by our Justice Minister to introduce wide-ranging data retention in Ireland. This is just her primary cause for concern, however, as there are other serious issues that lone activists have been trying to highlight for some time, such as: the introduction of identity cards; a European version of the DMCA; and even the worldwide chilling effect a case like Eldred will have. (I'm aware of the irony of a European making that statement.)

In the past, activists have tried to come together to address these issues. An organisation called "Electronic Frontier Ireland" was formed in 1994 to represent the community, but it was probably before it's time - Ireland has been very slow to get it's citizens online - and it effectively disappeared into the ether several years ago. People like myself, Karlin and others have discussed setting up representative and/or community groups before, only for the suggestions to slowly wither and die, because of a lack of interest and lack of support.

Things are changing over here a little now though. One organisation - IrelandOffline <www.irelandoffline> (disclaimer: I was PRO for IrelandOffline for the first half of last year) - has been very successful in making itself the de facto representative organisation for Irish Internet users, with high-level meetings and significant media coverage. Other communities are coming together to build not-for-profit businesses, such as the Wireless ISP I am involved in in the South of Ireland. And people seem to be starting to /care/ about their online freedoms, and they notice when they're being threatened.

So a momentum seems to be building up, and that has led some of us to believe that now the time /is/ right to get ourselves organised, to start bringing pressure to bear, to get the people who are using September 11 as a means to increase their power to /stop/. And that's why we want to get organised, and that's why I'm here. I don't want to speak directly for my colleagues, but I for one would like to tie in with the EFF as much as possible, to learn from your experience and to use your methodologies.

Even if that's not possible, we'll get it done, but obviously we need a first step and I'm taking the easiest one I can see. I hope you'll be able to help us. So, let me ask a simple question to get started: Where do we begin?

Thanks,
adam