cruel to be kind

(Even if the ‘deadline’ is kind of over (like described in this boingboing posting) do it anyhow. From my point of view, EFF is at the moment the only organisation on ‘my’ side which will have an effect due to existing contacts and connections. And, the people supporting this Wipo treaty will either get it this time, or they will try again. )

If you are a podcaster or one of those video people, please take the moment and read the statement at the EFF site (see below) .

If you are a company which does podcasting / uses podcasting, please do so as well.
Do you enjoy podcasting? Check with your favorite podcaster if they have seen this as well.
If you agree with what you see, send a message to the email address on the EFF page with just line as you would like to sign it.

Actually, this one is even worse than net neutrality at the moment. This is not about you the small podcaster against the big ones as in fight against capitalism, this is about the power of the internet. Yes, I am serious. In this world it is not just one bad thing which is happening. There are multiple enemies. Make sure your voice is heard also. And that it stays in the rights you have chosen for your work.

What is this about? Check for yourself as well as secondary links via search:
Joint Statement of Podcasting Organizations and Podcasters on the Proposed Wipo Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Presented to 15th Session of Wipo Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights

Bringing it to the UN and Wipo makes it bad on so many levels which is why you also should care if you are not in the US. I know, a lot of people think about “this digital rights stuff” as something only happening to the US, but there are implications as well.

This is also an encouragement to consider donating money to an organisation like EFF to keep your digital rights. You may agree or disagree with the EFF and how they are run, but I do not care much about who you support, just help them support you. The one thing I would like to ask from you is to take a look if this organisation has a global view instead of a narrow country based one.

Please remember: This has to be scanned by somebody who has to judge the imporance of this. This is not for advertisement of yourself but to show off why you have to be taken seriously. Like for example:

Miles Metcalfe Head of IT Research and Development Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication Chislehurst, United Kingdom http://www.rave.ac.uk/

The Pixel Corps, Guild of Digital Content Creators, 2000 members in 35 countries Producers of “Macbreak”, “Macbreak Weekly”, “this WEEK in MEDIA”

Carl Malamud, USA
Chief Technology Officer, Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.
Founder of the Internet Multicasting Service, distributor of first audio programs on the Internet in 1993.

Podiobooks.com (representing 50+ authors releasing audio versions of their books under Creative Commons license)

This is something often forgotten: Think who is going to read this through. If they see a lot of links, they will not see the rest.

The recipients of the document need to judge if you are important enought to them to be taken seriously.
Think about that for a moment.

And then ask you local politician about how they see this topic. And others. :)

Technorati Tags: wipo, wipo broadcast treaty, podcasting rights, digital rights, eff

Tags: podcasting