The State of the Open Rights Group
Posted on April 8th, 2010 by Russ. Filed under Politics.
I’ve been a paying supporter of the Open Rights Group — with a brief PayPal-induced hiatus — since it was founded in December 2005. I’m sad to note that I’ve just stopped my monthly membership payments, and I’d like to expand a little on why.
Firstly, some of the reasons which aren’t behind this decision: I’m not quitting because the Digital Economy Bill was passed — with Labour’s three-line whip and the Tories apparently whipping to abstain it was arguably inevitable regardless of the amount of campaigning. I’m not quitting because I agree with the inflammatory Mr. Orlowski’s rant on the Register, although it’s certainly good for a chuckle. And I’m certainly not quitting because I think digital rights are dead in the UK.
The reason I am quitting is that the ORG really doesn’t seem like an organisation I can identify with any more. At the moment if you hit up their home page you’re greeted with a picture of a giant middle finger entitled “What parliament thinks of your right to internet access”. Cute, maybe, but it’s not clever and it’s been greeted by many of my (young, tech-savvy) friends with a similar amount of disdain. At any rate, politics doesn’t operate by telling people to go fuck themselves (at least not so overtly).
I also think the ORG should, before everything else, be trying to help its members to make a well-reasoned point about legislation it opposes. None of the clear, plain-language explanation I’ve seen on the Digital Economy Bill and the complex tangle of amendments it generated has been from the ORG. One of the key rules about writing to your MP is that it’s much better to make a point in your own words. I’ve been surprised at the number of people who wrote to their MPs about the Digital Economy Bill but still didn’t understand the key points, and I fear that it might have given a slight impression that we were a desperate group of copyright infringers.
Lastly, I’m absolutely not a fan of the ORG’s shouty, spammy emails:
All in all the ORG today feels like a condescending, unprofessional organisation, and that’s exactly the opposite of what it needs to be to convince people that it’s a worthy cause.
April 8th, 2010 at 23:58
I cancelled my payment two weeks ago.
April 9th, 2010 at 00:24
I am sorry to hear this; I’m on the ORG tech advisory board, and have been impressed with their work on the Digital Economy Bill; the reason this looks so spammy is the unprecedented rushing through of the bill itself over three days.
The Bill is very complex and convoluted, and breaking it down to clear impacts is a challenge; I had a few attempts on my personal blog, but a summary of the issues for lobbying purposes is avery good suggestion.
April 9th, 2010 at 08:16
Yes, I’m sorry to hear this too (and form James W). But of course you should only support it while you feel it’s right to do so.
The campaign on #DEBill was hard-fought, and took ORG to places, using media and messages it never did before. I preferred our message and our approach to that of the rights owners. I think the home-page finger is perhaps ill-advised, and expect it to be very temporary.
It’s very easy to unsubscribe from ORG-Action (I’m not subscribed to it; never have been. But I assume those who do subscribe generally want to get it). I wouldn’t use the word “unprofessional” (you should see some of the other oganisation we had to deal with while I was on the Board: ORG is the very model of professionalism in NGO-world, and with very low admin overheads to boot).
ORG is what we make it. And there are many fantastic people involved. I dont think you and I ever met, but my guess is you’d have had a lot to contribute.
Anyway – good luck, and I hope you continue to fight the good fight in other ways…
April 9th, 2010 at 09:55
I think the important thing really is to not be so Reactionary and deal with change instead of fighting it. The bill is now an act so how do we go about fixing it? It seems a bit like ORG didn’t really have a plan for this situation.