ORG is ready for legal action

Today ORG have launched a new campaign to fund a legal project which will allow us to create new case law and lead on bringing digital rights issues to the courts.

We have seen huge changes in the digital rights agenda in the last few months. Matthew Woods and Azhar Ahmed were prosecuted and sentenced for free speech on social media. BPI are increasing the number of web blocking injunctions with insufficient transparency about what will be blocked and without processes in place to remove material that no longer needs to be blocked. The pornography company Goldeneye still wish to send alleged file-sharers copyright complaints on behalf of other companies with the intention of extracting payment without a court case, a case we are preparing to contest.  All of these are issues where ORG needs to be able to prepare legal briefs and intervene in the courts.

Some of the things our Legal Officer would enable us to do are:

• Prepare friend of the court briefings to explain the civil liberties consequences of web blocking injuctions
• Provide technical advice to the courts where proposals would be unworkable or have unforseen circumstances
• Draft amendments to delete or replace misused powers, such as Section 127 A, which was used to prosecute Paul Chambers in the Twitter joke trial.
• Challenge Government decisions in judicial reviews
• This new capacity will enable us to build on the amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefing on the Digital Economy Act jucidical review where we explained the impact on privacy.
• Expand our legal panel scheme where individuals can request pro-bono legal advice on digital rights issues

We are running our ORG Law Fund campaign across November to achieve two goals:

Goal 1: 150 new supporters

This will allow us to launch our legal project and hire a part-time Legal Officer to work in ORG’s office

Goal 2: 300 new supporters

We can hire a permanent full time Legal Officer

You can help ORG take a stand

There are lots of ways you can get involved and help. If you want more support in fundraising or have ideas do get in touch with me about them (ruth@openrightsgroup.org).

• Join ORG, if you haven’t already! As part of ORG Law Fund we are offering a free copy of Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross’ Rapture of the Nerds as a thank you.

• Tell your friends about ORG. We want to thank our paying supporters for all that they do, so we are offering a series of rewards for those of you who are helping to recruit your friends.

• Make a video about why you support ORG. Across November we will be releasing a series of videos by ORG supports talking about their personal key concerns for digital rights. Watch this space!

Thank you very much for helping ORG take the next step as an organisation.