Lessig's Challenge: Are You Up To It?

Eloquence writes "At the 2002 Open Source Conference, law professor and cyberactivist Larry Lessig, last prominently featured here because of the Eldred case, asked some poignant questions: 'How many people have given to [the] EFF more money than they have given to their local telecom to give them shitty DSL service? How many people have given more money to [the] EFF than they give each year to support the monopoly--to support the other side?' Luke Francl has interpreted these questions as a challenge, and decided to chronicle both his donations to good causes and his less voluntary payments to 'the media oligarchy' on this page: Lessig's Challenge. This is a good idea if others imitate it: If these pages become interlinked with each other, not only can they motivate us and let us track our progress, they may also help us to keep each other up to date about 'good causes' -- there's more than the EFF, after all. With Harry Potter in theatres and Lord of the Rings before us, should 'nerds' also be thinking about supporting those who fight for our rights to, say, play DVDs on an open-source OS?"

Comments

Re:money

[Hellkitten]

OSS will lose its appeal the the mass if they end up having to pay for opensource software as well

There is the difference between having to pay and choosing to pay

Also of course if you are a programmer you could give something back to the community by helping develop OSS. If you're not you could help with ideas, bug reports, etc. And if you're a lazy unskilled idealist you could donate

Not just nerds should fight, but all people

[StandardCell]

The problem here is how to bring that message to folks. An uncontrolled medium such as the Internet is very easy to at least publish and, to a lesser extent, promote. The sad part is the very media that would reach the masses are controlled by the other side - namely, television and radio. It's the lowest common denominator, yet how do you penetrate it when it is on the opposite side of the fence?

This needs to start with us, every day. With our secretaries, our neighbors, our grandmothers, everyone in every way. Word of mouth is powerful. But it can't just stop there, and I fear that it won't be enough in the end. With digital tv and DVD Audio just around the corner, and more severe copyright controls, you can bet that this problem will be even worse, and this message will sadly be further quelled. Nevertheless, it all starts with us...

post-rationalization?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you *really* believe that these companies are doing wrong you shouldn't be spending your money on them in the first place. Believe it or not, you'll be able to live without seeing hobbits on the big screen or having 1.5Mbps into your bedroom. Giving money to the opposition after the fact may make you feel better, but doesn't change the fact that you've already compromised your morals!

Re:post-rationalization?

[mosch]

the world is not so black and white, my friend.

for many people a fast internet connection allows them to work from home, thus extending the life of their car and decreasing their oil consumption. So then you must decide whether it is more hurtful to support their telecom/cable company, or to support the auto and oil industries.

the world is full of tradeoffs, to pretend otherwise is foolish and naive.

Not sure...

[pubjames]

I'm not sure if I can totally approve of this type of activism, because it mirrors exactly what is wrong with the USA today. It shouldn't be just about "how much money". If you really care about something, get off your butt and do something about it. Get vocal - organise grassroots movements, write letters, explain the problems you see to your friends, family and community. But don't just expect to buy influence with money - that's what is currently ruining the democratic fabric of the USA.

Internationality

[gorf]

I'd happily make donations to the EFF if I knew that they'd act for issues I'm faced with too (I live in England).

The last time I checked, I couldn't find any information about whether they would do this (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Of course, the rest of the world (Europe especially) do seem intent on matching American laws, so making American law sane would indirectly affect me, but that seems a very roundabout way to make my money effective.

Re:What about actual work?

[Eloquence]

I agree, there are definitely different ways to contribute. In the end, it's about finding the right balance. If you contribute some content to the public domain, but still consume most of the blockbuster movies produced by Hollywood, you may end up helping the oligarchy more than hurting it. The question is not "What's better" but "What's the sum of my actions".

It's also about capability: Some people can only contribute money, others can only contribute code, others can do both. That's why it's so stupid to tell people who complain about open source to fix the problems they report -- some people can't code, but they may help by donating or by reporting problems. Everyone who doesn't have to spend most of their time struggling for survival (which is, unfortunately, true for a large part of the world population) can contribute to open source and open content.

Re:Do we get our money's worth with the EFF?

[Beautyon]

they failed to stop the DMCA

Maybe its because they didnt have enough lobbying cash? You cant expect them to work miracles whilst being underfunded.

it was RedHat's lobbying that reduced the effect of UCITA

RedHat has money to do this good work. Perhaps people should buy a 7.3 box to say "thanks".

Either way, its a fascinating idea; match dollar for dollar the money you spen on the monopoly, on people trying to protect us from it.

An example of great thinking...

Re:Exploding Dog?

[wunderhorn1]

I believe the idea is that it's not enough to simply boycott the Entertainment Cartel, because most of us couldn't go without movies/music forever. We need to support friendly independent entertainment sources so that there will be alternatives to the media conglomerates.

Also, assuming you spend a fixed amount of money per month on entertainment, each dollar given to independent sources of entertainment is a dollar not given to the media conglomerates.

In this way we work to take down the media cartel and put up a friendlier system in its place.