[kwlug-disc] Fwd: Re: [WLSG] Letter-writing meeting [urgent-ish]

[Paul Nijjar]

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 01:39:37PM -0700, John Kerr wrote:
> HI Andrew
> 
> I am sorry that I missed it, I am stuck in Guelph with now wheels.
> 
> I am interested in this.

For those who were stuck in Guelph: instead of being sensible I went
out to this event. There were lots of students there, and not many
KWLUG members, but the atmosphere was pretty vibrant anyways. 

Here are a few points from the session that have stuck in my mind: 

- It looks like our MPs are obligated to read our petitions in the
  House of Commons if we get 25 or more people signing them. This
  seems like a concretely useful thing to do, so some people (Stephen
  Paul Weber and Michael Biggs) are going to put together a petition
  around C-32. I am hoping to have this petition for the July meeting. 
  I think that getting 25 signatures for the Kitchener-Waterloo riding
  will be trivial, but the other ridings will be more work. 

- Apparently the actions we can take that are likely to be of
  the most use are: MP visits, letters to MPs (handwritten is better), 
  signing petitions, and letters to the editor. 

- There will be some activism/co-ordination for the group happening on 
  the WSIC (Waterloo Students for the Information Commons) mailing
  list. I would encourage those interested in doing stuff around this 
  issue to join the mailing list: 
  http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/wsic

- The key people to write letters to are: your MP, ministers Tony
  Clement (who might be favourable) and James Moore (who might not), 
  and key people in the opposition (including the Liberal critic 
  and maybe Michael Ignatieff). 

- One core phrase that was floated around a lot was the idea that 
  "circumvention of digital locks should be allowed for non-infringing
  purposes". That is, if the use that you would be using media for 
  would not be infringing copyright ordinarily, then breaking a
  digital lock should be okay. It seems like an elegant way of
  expressing the issue to me, but maybe I am on drugs. 

- Paul