[Commons-Law] EFF-India?

[Badri Natarajan]

At 10:00 PM 4/20/2004 +0530, you wrote:


>We  need to start  something like  the Electronic  Frontier Foundation
>here.
>
>Any ideas? Any other organisation specifically working on human rights
>in the digital world?

This is an excellent idea - we certainly need an EFF-India to deal with 
this kind of issue. There are so many IP and tech lawyers in India today, 
but no civil rights organization in the area..

I actually had a long chat about exactly this possibility, recently, with 
Cindy Cohn and Fred von Lohmann, who are, respectively, Legal Director and 
Senior IP Attorney at the EFF. They were very enthusiastic about the idea 
and said they would provide whatever support and help they could if such an 
initiative actually took off.

However, there are significant issues that need to be addressed.

First, there are funding issues. How much will it cost? Who will finance 
it? If you take corporate money are you beholden to take the stands they 
approve of? This is one major reason why the EFF is largely funded by its 
members and only takes corporate money when there aren't any ideological 
strings attached.

Second, Mission and purpose - what should the organization do? I mean, 
"civil rights in the digital world" is all well and good, but much more 
specific planning is required. Should it be a litigation-only PIL shop? 
What about lobbying in Parliament? How broad should the scope be? (Take a 
look at the list of issues on the left side of the main EFF page).  What 
about being an advocacy organization as well?

Third, Location: Dependent on above two, but should it be in Bangalore, 
because cost of living is less than Delhi or Bombay and it is India's tech 
hub? Or Delhi, for the access to the Supreme Court and central Government? 
Personally, I think the choice comes down to these two cities, though.

Fourth, Culture and "Before its time" issues: Starting any new organization 
is difficult, but starting EFF-India will be even more difficult because it 
will be a pioneer in India - an NGO for issues that simply haven't entered 
most people's minds yet. Fortunately, the evolution of PILs in the 80s, and 
the vast number of civil rights NGOs make the job easier, but this is a 
completely new area, especially regarding the non-litigation aspects of EFF.

In particular, the US lobbying culture, and the openness required in 
Government for it to work, simply doesn't exist in India. That doesn't mean 
it isn't possible, just that it is harder. When I worked at EFF last year, 
I spent quite a lot of time researching and drafting comments on various 
DMCA issues for public hearings by the Copyright Office, and IP issues in 
free trade agreements. All the required information (and calls for 
comments) were freely available on the websites of the government 
departments...that kind of culture doesn't exist in India yet. Maybe 
EFF-India can help create it..

On the advocacy front, the challenge is making these issues relevant to 
people who are mostly unaware, and have bigger problems - that's a 
challenge even in the US, but more so in India.

Okay, those are just some random thoughts off the top of my head...what 
does everyone else think?

Badri