[clug-talk] Fight proposal for a Canadian DMCA

[Kevin Anderson]

Having been down this road for something similar a very long time ago.  I can 
say this.  Little fringe groups like CLUG offer a politician nothing.  So 
plan something that works from his perspective.

Politicians are under fire for schooling.  Have someone from a school board, 
come to speak to them, so that the spin can be "Jim Prentice meets with 
School Board in an attempt to grow technical progress for students".

Whatever.  Find a reason why this benefits the politician in his job.  Linux, 
in this case, doesn't matter, so don't try to push YOUR agenda.  It's FAR 
better to simply draw attention to the case.  No politician gives a crap 
about us or Linux.  They simply care about a need to be reelected.  On the 
other hand, WE don't care if they're reelected, we simply care about (at 
least) drawing attention to this issue.  So do that.  Having 10000 people 
complain is far more effective than having a few radicals who are easily 
passed off as Open Source nutballs.  Better still is having businesses, LARGE 
businesses speak to the benefits they've gained in a society free of these 
restrictions.  Find some who will speak about it.  Put them into the news.

Whatever you do, plan it from the perspective of the politician with the 
understanding that you're asking them to vote against someone who just gave 
them $50000.  Find a reason why they'd vote against that person.  The only 
reason is that it'll cost them the election.  Our 20 or 50 votes don't 
matter, it needs to be bigger.  Is there a MS User Group?  Mac?  Bring them 
too.  Schools have the most to benefit from a free exchange of ideas however, 
so I'd start there.  It's pretty easy to incite public hatred towards an idea 
that means class sizes are going up, or that school taxes are going up.  So 
make it clear to the general populace that they should expect to see that.  
Then have someone from a schoolboard who will back that up.

Kev.



On Sunday 09 December 2007 18:39:24 Gustin Johnson wrote:
> Cameron wrote:
> > This may seem like a wacky suggestion....but what would you guys think
> > about inviting Minister Prentice to answer questions at the next CLUG
> > meeting?  Or hold a special joint meeting with CCUG, etc. to address
> > more concerns...specifically towards technology, software development,
> > etc.
>
> I like this idea.  Perhaps a joint venture with some of the other user
> groups in town (CUUG is an obvious choice).
>
> > Sort of an open house after the open house.  Maybe have an installfet
> > for Prentice and have him install Ubuntu or something and get a real
> > taste of what unrestricted ideas, technology can do.
>
> He doesn't care.  It is still not a bad idea to invite some politicians
> to an installfest (and not limit it to them, but media, business/chamber
> of commerce, academia etc).
>
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