Interview with Robin Gross -IP Justice

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Digital rights under fire By Lisa M. Bowman 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com January 23, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2008-1082-981663.html
(note: Gross worked with EFF as an attorney) 

... Robin Gross thinks international copyright laws are out of step with
the people. So much so that the former Electronic Frontier Foundation
attorney is launching a new watchdog group called IP Justice.

Her goal is to "promote balance in global intellectual property law."
Gross says she wants to make sure people won't become targets of legal
action for doing things like making personal copies of CDs, DVDs and
e-books they've purchased.

Gross, who's officially unveiling the project in the next couple of weeks,
envisions uniting programmers and online activists across the globe to
make sure consumers get a fair shake in the copyright debate

..

Q&A with Robin Gross:

What will some of those principles be? 

One is the idea that we should have the right to control our own
individual experience of creative works. When we're in the privacy of our
own homes, and we're using DVDs or CDs that we own on the computers that
we own, that Hollywood doesn't have a right to tell us how we can use that
media. It's our property and our rights as global citizens to receive and
express and impart information without the interference of the copyright
holders.

...

I really don't think that lawmakers have been given a fair hearing about
what the public's rights are and what the public's concerns are. They've
got a very close connection with the Hollywood lobbyists, and their
position seems to very closely reflect the views of the Hollywood
executives. So I think they need to be reminded of the public and what
they expect of lawmakers when it comes to protecting their civil rights
and their civil liberties. 

...

What's your biggest fear?

That we're too late. My biggest fear is that there's so much momentum in
terms of legislation and building technological restrictions that we'll be
too late to stop the tide from heading in that direction of total control
over what people can do with their intellectual property

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