It is a great time for the Open Rights Group. Last night at Liberty’s annual Human Rights Awards we won the
Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award, jointly with 38 Degrees. The Award was given for our work campaigning against the Snooper's
Charter, thanks to your work emailing and visiting MPs. This month we are organising a big campaigning event
to co-ordinate the campaign with other civil liberties groups and many CDB events across the country. We have also
applied to intervene in the Golden Eye case, with more details on this first
step towards defending digital rights on the courts below. With all of this going on I encourage you to
join ORG to allow us to
keep doing this great work and fight for your rights.
ORG applies to intervene in Goldeneye case
We have applied for permission to intervene in the appeal of the Golden Eye International v Telefonica UK decision and we need your help to take this important case on.
Golden Eye are trying to compel O2 to provide personal information about their users so that they can then be spammed with speculative claims of infringement –and perhaps grab a quick settlement fee. Golden Eye are not the copyright owners, but rather hold an ‘enforcement-only’ license with no specific mandate from the 12 other porn studios who they act for. We are intervening on behalf of those consumers whose personal data would be released.
If the decision goes our way it will be a blow to the legality of speculative invoicing schemes.
We would like to ask for your donations now to help us to raise the £5000 that will pay for various court fees and the top notch legal team working on our behalf on this case.
Neil Gaiman on digital rights
We thought it better to shut up about why you should join ORG at this point, and just let Neil Gaiman speak for himself on why he supports ORG.
![]( "Neil Gaiman on why you should join ORG")
There are more videos coming in the next few weeks as ORG supporters like Ben Hammersley, Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, Hugh Hancock and Becky Hogge talk about their personal conviction in digital rights.
Stop the Snoopers’ Charter event
We're running a
big campaigning event on the Snoopers' Charter, jointly hosted with Index on Censorship. We're delighted that Cory Doctorow and a host of the best privacy experts will be there sharing their insights and opinions.
Tickets are free! You can get them at our Eventbrite page. The event will run from 2pm until 6pm on Saturday 24th November at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA.
ORGZine updates
Alongside our main website ORG run a magazine for discussion and debate on digital rights issues.
November was marked by some big events happening in the United States. Hurricane Sandy hit New York, amongst other cities, and Wendy Grossman analysed the digital divide the super storm provoked in the City. After the US presidential election week, ORGZine published Billion-Dollar Spree: arguing that anonymous trolling on the Internet should not be the concern, when Super Pacs still can’t be identified. Moving to France, Stephanie de Vanssay tells us in a feature interview why she is campaigning to have social media embedded within the French education system.
New writers and discussion are always welcome! If you have an idea for a topic or want to write, get in touch with our editor, on orgzine.editor@openrightsgroup.org
You're not alone.
Without your donations, we would not be able to continue our campaigns. That's why we would like to ask you to support us against government and corporate actions limiting your digital rights. Please join today!