[Linux-aus] Seeking feedback - EFA Citizens Not Suspects campaign

[Luke John]

>> 2. The type and level of support you believe it would be appropriate to
>> provide - such as financial, in kind through raising awareness etc,
>> utilising the #DataRetention hashtag etc
>
>
> I don't really know if it's appropriate for Linux Australia to throw weight
> behind such a campaign, beyond conducting an awareness campaign to members
> (I'm not saying I have reservations about doing so, I just genuinely don't
> know whether it falls within the remit of the organisation). I think it's
> entirely appropriate to draw members' attention to the issues though.

I think if it's appropriate for Linux Australia to conduct an
awareness campaign for it's members, then it should also be
appropriate for Linux Australia to have a position on it, ie; the
proposals are concerning to our members, and so we support the EFA
campaign to educate more people about the issue.

Kind Regards
Luke John


On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 1:28 PM, Ben Dechrai <ben at dechrai.com> wrote:
> Hi LA,
>
>> From time to time, Linux Australia is approached by various organisations to
>> seek support for campaigns or initiatives. Many of these fall into the
>> category of grants and sponsorship - cf. the recent work we have been doing
>> with the Australian Internet Governance Forum and GovHack. In this case,
>> we've been approached to support a political campaign being run by Electronic
>> Frontiers Australia called 'Citizens not suspects'. We warmly welcome the
>> approach from EFA, and now would like to gauge community feedback to help
>> guide our support actions.
>
> To me, Linux Australia represents more than just Linux, it represents
> Open Source at many levels.
>
> I find huge value in Open Source protecting the freedoms of the people
> and/or the code (depending on your licence of choice), and I consider
> supporting an organisation who's remit is to protect people's freedoms
> and civil liberties in areas other than code creation as being in line
> with LA's own principles.
>
>> 1. The level of comfort in the community in taking a specific political
>> position against the proposals
>
> If there is general support for LAs involvement, but a concern remains
> around LA becoming politically active, I would suggest that LA could
> takes the position that support is a contribution to further protecting
> the freedoms of their members, and Australians in general, rather than
> being a political statement.
>
> If it can reasonably be said that the members of LA are almost entirely
> a subset of those who oppose the government's proposal, then there is
> grounds for supporting this campaign, if any political concerns are
> dealt with satisfactorily.
>
>> 2. The type and level of support you believe it would be appropriate to
>> provide - such as financial, in kind through raising awareness etc, utilising
>> the #DataRetention hashtag etc
>
> It's a tough one and, as you can tell, my personal views are that the
> proposed extensions to ASIOs powers should not be granted. I would be
> comfortable with LA providing financial support to this campaign, but I
> respect that LA may wish to avoid political entanglement.
>
> In any event, I would ask the Council to provide indirect support
> through the raising of awareness of the issues.
>
> Cheers,
> Ben
>
>
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