Fair Use Copy Prevention
May 30, 2002
EFF's Comments on the BPDG's recommendations and supposed "open process"

The EFF has submitted comments on the BPDG's recommendations (as manipulated by its co-chairs, apparently).

You can get the EFF's comments as a text, PDF or Word document, but the BPDG recommendation is not available to for public view and you can check out the drafts for yourself.

The BPDG "process" has been rife with acrimony, arbitrariness and confusion, to an extent that cannot be fully ascribed to mere haste. EFF believes that the failings of the BPDG process stem directly from BPDG's efforts to cloak a inter-industry horse-trading exercise in the trappings of a public undertaking, with nominal participation from all "affected industries." In reality, the representatives were hand-picked by the conveners of the BPDG to minimize any dissent, as is evidenced by the high degree of similarity between the original proposal brought to the group by its conveners and the final report that the co-chairs unilaterally present herein as the group's findings.

Throughout the process, the absence of any formal charter or process afforded the co-chairs the opportunity to manipulate the rules of the group to suit their true purpose while maintaining its illusory openness, as when the scope of the group's discussions was summarily expanded to encompass all unauthorized redistribution of feature films, as opposed to unauthorized redistribution over the Internet.

Posted by Lisa at May 30, 2002 06:59 PM | TrackBack
Me A to Z (A Work In Progress)