Open Rights Group
Encyclopedia
The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights
and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues, acting as a media clearinghouse service putting journalists in touch with experts, and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns against digital rights management
(DRM), the extension of the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, e-voting, and numerous other issues.
, Cory Doctorow
, Ian Brown, Rufus Pollock
, James Cronin, Stefan Magdalinski, Louise Ferguson and Suw Charman after a panel discussion at Open Tech 2005. O'Brien created a pledge on PledgeBank
, placed on 23 July 2005, with a deadline of 25 December 2005: "I will create a standing order of 5 pound
s per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK but only if 1,000 other people will too." The pledge reached 1000 people on 29 November 2005., The Open Rights Group was launched at a "sell-out" meeting in Soho
, London.
, and the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
,.
The group was honoured in the 2008 Privacy International
Big Brother Awards
alongside No2ID
, Liberty
, Genewatch UK and others, as a recognition of their efforts to keep state and corporate mass surveillance
at bay.
In 2010 the group worked with 38 Degrees
to oppose the introduction of the Digital Economy Act
, which was passed in April 2010.
Former staff include Suw Charman-Anderson
and Becky Hogge
, both Executive Directors, e-voting coordinator Jason Kitcat, grassroots campaigner Katie Sutton and administrator Katerina Maniadaki. The group's patron is Neil Gaiman
. As of February 2011 they have 22,000 supporters of which 1,400 are paying contributors
The current board members are Emma Byrne, Simon Collister, James Cronin, Ben Laurie
, Neil McGovern, Harry Metcalfe, Danny O'Brien
and Vijay Sodiwala.
, politicians and similar pressure groups including Liberty
, NO2ID
and Big Brother Watch
.
Digital rights
The term digital rights describes the permissions of individuals legitimately to perform actions involving the use of a computer, any electronic device, or a communications network...
and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues, acting as a media clearinghouse service putting journalists in touch with experts, and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns against digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
(DRM), the extension of the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, e-voting, and numerous other issues.
History
The organisation was started by Danny O'BrienDanny O'Brien
Danny O'Brien is an English technology journalist and civil liberties activist. He wrote weekly columns for the Sunday Times and the Irish Times; and before that for The Guardian, and acted as a consultant in helping The Guardian formulate its online strategy. He worked for the UK edition of...
, Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...
, Ian Brown, Rufus Pollock
Rufus Pollock
Dr Rufus Pollock is an economist and co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation. He is currently a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, an Associate of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge and a Director of the Open Knowledge Foundation which he...
, James Cronin, Stefan Magdalinski, Louise Ferguson and Suw Charman after a panel discussion at Open Tech 2005. O'Brien created a pledge on PledgeBank
PledgeBank
PledgeBank is a website which runs pledges on all topics, of the form: "I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same." Such public commitments are a non-coercive way to solve problems of collective action, especially when the goal is a public good. PledgeBank was founded by mySociety and...
, placed on 23 July 2005, with a deadline of 25 December 2005: "I will create a standing order of 5 pound
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
s per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK but only if 1,000 other people will too." The pledge reached 1000 people on 29 November 2005., The Open Rights Group was launched at a "sell-out" meeting in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London.
Work
The group has made submissions to the All Party Internet Group (APIG) inquiry into digital rights managementDigital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, and the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property was an independent review of UK intellectual property focusing on UK copyright law that was published in December 2006. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown commissioned Andrew Gowers to lead the review in December 2005. The Review was...
,.
The group was honoured in the 2008 Privacy International
Privacy International
Privacy International is a UK-based non-profit organisation formed in 1990, "as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations." PI has organised campaigns and initiatives in more than fifty countries and is based in London, UK.-Formation, background and...
Big Brother Awards
Big Brother Awards (United Kingdom)
The Big Brother Awards for the United Kingdom-2008:A single Big Brother award was won by New Labour.2008 Winston Awards* Baroness Sarah Ludford* Phil Booth, National Coordinator of NO2ID...
alongside No2ID
NO2ID
NO2ID, the public campaign, was formed in 2004 to campaign against the United Kingdom government's plans to introduce UK ID Cards and the associated National Identity Register, which it believes has negative implications for privacy, civil liberties and personal safety.NO2ID is entirely independent...
, Liberty
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
, Genewatch UK and others, as a recognition of their efforts to keep state and corporate mass surveillance
Mass surveillance
Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire population, or a substantial fraction thereof.Modern governments today commonly perform mass surveillance of their citizens, explaining that they believe that it is necessary to protect them from dangerous groups such as terrorists,...
at bay.
In 2010 the group worked with 38 Degrees
38 Degrees
38 Degrees is a UK non-profit, progressive, political activism organisation that campaigns on a diverse range of issues, such as protecting the environment and tackling climate change, democratic media ownership, child poverty and political reform...
to oppose the introduction of the Digital Economy Act
Digital Economy Act 2010
The Digital Economy Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regulating digital media. Introduced by Peter Mandelson, Lord Mandelson, it received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, and came into force on 8 June 2010 The Digital Economy Act 2010 (c. 24) is an Act of the Parliament of...
, which was passed in April 2010.
Goals
- To raise awareness in the media of digital rightsDigital rightsThe term digital rights describes the permissions of individuals legitimately to perform actions involving the use of a computer, any electronic device, or a communications network...
abuses. - To provide a media clearinghouse, connecting journalists with experts and activists.
- To preserve and extend traditional civil libertiesCivil libertiesCivil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
in the digital world. - To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations.
- To nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts.
Areas of interest
The organisation, though focused on the impact of digital technology on the liberty of UK citizens, operates with an apparently wide range of interests within that category. Its interests include:Access to knowledge
- CopyrightCopyrightCopyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
- The public domainPublic domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
- FreeFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source software - Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
- The public domain
- Digital Restrictions ManagementDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
- Software patents
- Crown copyrightCrown copyrightCrown copyright is a form of copyright claim used by the governments of a number of Commonwealth realms. It provides special copyright rules for the Crown .- Australia :...
Privacy, surveillance and censorship
- Automatic Vehicle TrackingAutomatic Vehicle TrackingThe term Automatic Vehicle Tracking refers to schemes, such as that proposed by the UK's Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, in which vehicle movements are subject to involuntary mass surveillance enabled by technology rather than through use of, for example, police officers to observe vehicle...
- Police DNA RecordsUK National DNA DatabaseThe United Kingdom National DNA Database is a national DNA Database that was set up in 1995. As of the end of 2005, it carried the profiles of around 3.1 million people...
- NHS patients’ medical database
- Communications data retentionData retentionData retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. A data retention policy weighs legal and privacy concerns against economics and need to know concerns to determine both the retention time, archival rules, data...
- Identity managementIdentity managementIdentity management is a broad administrative area that deals with identifying individuals in a system and controlling access to the resources in that system by placing restrictions on the established identities of the individuals.Identity management is multidisciplinary and covers many...
- RFID
- Net Neutrality
Structure
ORG has a paid staff, whose members include:- Jim Killock (Executive Director)
- Peter Bradwell (Campaigner)
- Javier Ruiz Diaz (Campaigner)
Former staff include Suw Charman-Anderson
Suw Charman-Anderson
Susan Margaret Charman-Anderson , known as Suw Charman-Anderson, is the former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, a campaign group based in London. She is also a journalist, social software consultant, blogger and public speaker. On 15 February 2008 she married Kevin Anderson...
and Becky Hogge
Becky Hogge
Becky Hogge is a UK-based music and technology writer and the first full-time executive director of the Open Rights Group, resigning in 2008. She was previously the managing editor, and then the technology director and technology commissioning editor for openDemocracy.net...
, both Executive Directors, e-voting coordinator Jason Kitcat, grassroots campaigner Katie Sutton and administrator Katerina Maniadaki. The group's patron is Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
. As of February 2011 they have 22,000 supporters of which 1,400 are paying contributors
Advisory Council and Board of Directors
In addition to staff members and volunteers, there is an advisory panel of over thirty members, and a Board of Directors, which oversees the group's work, staff, fundraising and policy.The current board members are Emma Byrne, Simon Collister, James Cronin, Ben Laurie
Ben Laurie
Ben Laurie is a software engineer, protocol designer and cryptographer. He is a founding director of The Apache Software Foundation, a core team member of OpenSSL, a member of the Shmoo Group, a director of the Open Rights Group, Director of Security at The Bunker Secure Hosting, Trustee and...
, Neil McGovern, Harry Metcalfe, Danny O'Brien
Danny O'Brien
Danny O'Brien is an English technology journalist and civil liberties activist. He wrote weekly columns for the Sunday Times and the Irish Times; and before that for The Guardian, and acted as a consultant in helping The Guardian formulate its online strategy. He worked for the UK edition of...
and Vijay Sodiwala.
ORGCON
ORGCON was the first ever conference dedicated to digital rights in the UK, marketed as "a crash course in digital rights". It was held on 24 July 2010 at City University in London and included keynote talks from Cory DoctorowCory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...
, politicians and similar pressure groups including Liberty
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
, NO2ID
NO2ID
NO2ID, the public campaign, was formed in 2004 to campaign against the United Kingdom government's plans to introduce UK ID Cards and the associated National Identity Register, which it believes has negative implications for privacy, civil liberties and personal safety.NO2ID is entirely independent...
and Big Brother Watch
Big Brother Watch
Big Brother Watch is a libertarian British pressure group founded in 2009 to "fight injustice and campaigns to protect our civil liberties and personal freedoms"...
.
See also
- Digital Rights IrelandDigital Rights IrelandDigital Rights Ireland is an digital rights advocacy and lobbying group based in the Republic of Ireland. The group works for civil liberties in a digital age.- Telecommunications data retention :...
- Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
- Electronic Frontiers AustraliaElectronic Frontiers AustraliaElectronic Frontiers Australia Inc. is a non-profit Australian national non-government organisation representing Internet users concerned with online liberties and rights...
- Electronic Frontier CanadaElectronic Frontier CanadaElectronic Frontier Canada is a Canadian on-line civil rights organization founded to ensure that the principles embodied in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms remain protected as new computing, communications, and information technologies are introduced into Canadian society.EFC was...
- Internet censorshipInternet censorshipInternet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
- Open Genealogy AllianceOpen Genealogy AllianceThe Open Genealogy Alliance is a UK-based project launched by three partners: the Open Rights Group, Open Knowledge Foundation and FreeBMD. OGA is currently researching the genealogy sector and the copyright status of digitized public domain documents...