KILKENNY -- More than a year ago, I sat down with Adam Beecher and five other advocates in a Dublin hotel and talked about opening an Irish chapter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It hasn't happened because of time commitments. From the sound of Irishblogs and based on news reports, an active EFF for Ireland is critical.
Matt Cooper gave 15 minutes of fame to IRMA and its legal crusade against 17 irish people. Damien Mulley says, "I wish we had an up and running version of EFF here in Ireland so it could help set the facts straight by pointing out things like this study showing filesharing doesn't damage music sales or point to the fact that other types of media are in decline such as Music, Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines and Books while Movies, Videogames and the Web are being viewed more."
Moreoever, an EFF Ireland would keep the heat on the Minister of Justice and his malformed data retention law.
The Dublin meeting spotlighted all of these areas and also commented on the role of the EFF against electronic voting and the importance of the fight against software patents. From Damien Mulley, "If we had this EFF group they could have also come out strong against the Software Patents Fiasco and countered the Microsoft Sponsored FUD on Open Source which has ended up with the Irish Software Association trying to dig itself out of a hole. It's shameful too that our E-Minister cannot see beyond MicroSoft's lobbying."
Damien Mulley -- "Where's our EFF?"
Karlin Lillington -- "In defense of data privacy"
