While the activists promoting IPR reform sometimes set up this opposition to simplistically for me (here's a The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade as an example. It's pretty amazing), I'll go w/ it.

Over the last decade, there has arisen an amazing group of global Civil Society activists challenging contemporary Intellectual Property right (IPR) policy promulgated by the US Trade Representatives and Corporate Interests. These are some of the players:

Consumer Project for Technology (CPTech) to be renamed Knowledge Ecology International (KEI): CPTech, led by Jamie Love, is the leading organization behind the Access to Knowledge treaty, a global effort embodied in treaty form, which is being debated currently and has been adopted by 20 (I need to check exact amount) nations. In partnership with third world activists/organizations, CPTech stopped in its tracks the US & Western Countrie Trade rep. from forcing a restrictive, pro-US media interest IPR policy at the World Intellectual Property Organization over the last two-three years. CPTech just received a substantial grant from the MacArthur Foundation to rebrand and reorganize as KEI.

DownHill Battle (DHB): "working to support participatory culture and build a fairer music industry," close ties w/ FC.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

Free Culture International Student Movement (FC):

Free Software Foundation US (FSF): Defective by Design (DBD)

USC Free Culture (our wiki). Blog link.

RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:

Fred von Lohmann, Senior Lawyer @ EFF (link). Fred has argued the biggest case re: Grokster (and had them remixed by DJs. Fred is an amazing speaker and a world-famous copyright lawyer. His oral argument in the Ninth Circuit hearing on Grokster inspired a techno remix. His oral argument is great. I love his quote from the MPAA when VCR hit, "VCR was to copyright as the Boston strangler is to a woman home alone and predicted it would be the death of copyright." How insame is that. No one got killed or robbed, people and the ind. just adopted and made money off of the new VCR technology eventually as always happens when technology isn't bottled up).

Fred previously clerked for a judge and a US senator, and worked under Condi Rice at Stanford. His seminal paper on the DMCA, Unintended Consequences, is one of the most widely cited analyses of the controversial copyright law. Fred is also an ardent music fan, and a tireless proponent of the preservation of fan culture and artist/fan engagement. Given that Cory is on the APOC advisory council and Fred is a good friend, for those int. in music, he's an accessible lead.

His talk was the most powerful one as he lays out how every distribution channel - cable, VCR, DVD, HDVD has restrictions that the MPAA and Telecommunication lobby has succedded in legistlating. He points out there are three parties dicating policy who Legistlatures are happy to follow: the telecommunication lobby (the strongers), then the entertainment (2nd Strongest with MPAA better organized than music RIAA folks) and then techology lobbies who generally don't bother. He concludes that we're obviously missing the 4th party - the public/consumers - and this is an amazing black hole space that APOC could fill in.

Cory Doctorow, Fulbright Visiting Professor, co-editor of BoingBoing and APOC advisor (link): This talk is the best overview yet re: how technology and online communities can RESTRICT and CONTROL users. In his presentation entitled "Set-Top Cop," he will discuss how user-controlling technology can create radical, negative outcomes. It's a powerful introduction and movitivated me to take his Set-Top Cop box seminar, which was a life-changing experience. Cory's been negotiating treatied at the global level trying to change Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and succeeding in the Access To Knowledge treaty, Adelphi Charter and others. As we develop our projects, esp. the ambitious political ones, he'll be great for feedback.




SET TOP COPS:


RIAA:
MPAA:
whatever the Telecom lobby is:
specifically
Howard Berman: called the "Hollywood" Congressman from the Valley will run a key sub-comm. re: Intell. Policy. Here's a LAX article and a post by Larry Lessig, the Standford Law Professor who the originator of the Free Culture movement.