[Advocacy Advisors] Letter on digital security

List overview All Threads
Download

newer

older

[Advocacy Advisors] Fwd: Last...

[Advocacy Advisors] Research on...

Stephen LaPorte

19 May 2015 19 May '15

3:51 p.m.

Hi advocacy advisors, I wanted to let you know that the Wikimedia Foundation joined a letter to President Obama, asking him to reject legislation that would force companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products. The letter was organized thanks to TechFreedom, with a wide variety of co-signers with a stake in digital security. Strong encryption and security are fundamental for our work online, so this letter is worth supporting to ensure that users can read and speak freely on our projects. The full letter is available online: http://docs.techfreedom.org/Encryption_Letter_to_Obama.pdf Thanks, Stephen -- Stephen LaPorte Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation *NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*

Attachments:

attachment.htm (text/html — 1.8 KB)

Show replies by date

Juergen Fenn

20 May 20 May

9:52 a.m.

Am 19.05.2015 um 21:51 schrieb Stephen LaPorte <slaporte(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:

...

I wanted to let you know that the Wikimedia Foundation joined a letter to President Obama, asking him to reject legislation that would force companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products. The letter was organized thanks to TechFreedom, with a wide variety of co-signers with a stake in digital security. Strong encryption and security are fundamental for our work online, so this letter is worth supporting to ensure that users can read and speak freely on our projects. The full letter is available online: http://docs.techfreedom.org/Encryption_Letter_to_Obama.pdf

Why is it that the WMF in this document is mentioned among "companies and trade associations" and not among the non-profit "civic society organisations"? Thx! Regards, Jürgen.

Yana Welinder

12:16 p.m.

Hi Jürgen, We were not listed as "civil society" because that group usually refers to organizations that primarily do advocacy work. Instead, we signed as a "company," which would include both for-profit and non-profit companies, though the only other signatories happen to be for-profit companies. The small number of non-profits in this category is really a testament to that we don't have enough public parks online <http://suegardner.org/2013/06/26/the-war-for-the-free-and-open-internet-and-how-we-are-losing-it/> . I should mention that when we signed, we didn't know that "trade associations" would be grouped with "companies," which is unusual. But it still is the most appropriate group for WMF. Thanks, Yana On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 9:52 AM, Juergen Fenn <jfenn(a)gmx.net> wrote:

...

Am 19.05.2015 um 21:51 schrieb Stephen LaPorte <slaporte(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:

I wanted to let you know that the Wikimedia Foundation joined a letter

to President Obama, asking him to reject legislation that would force companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products. The letter was organized thanks to TechFreedom, with a wide variety of co-signers with a stake in digital security. Strong encryption and security are fundamental for our work online, so this letter is worth supporting to ensure that users can read and speak freely on our projects.

The full letter is available online:

http://docs.techfreedom.org/Encryption_Letter_to_Obama.pdf Why is it that the WMF in this document is mentioned among "companies and trade associations" and not among the non-profit "civic society organisations"? Thx! Regards, Jürgen. _______________________________________________ Advocacy_Advisors mailing list Advocacy_Advisors(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors

-- Yana Welinder Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext. 6867 @yanatweets <https://twitter.com/yanatweets> NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. In other words, IANYL <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL>. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.

Juergen Fenn

12:36 p.m.

Am 20.05.2015 um 18:16 schrieb Yana Welinder <yana(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:

...

We were not listed as "civil society" because that group usually refers to organizations that primarily do advocacy work. Instead, we signed as a "company," which would include both for-profit and non-profit companies, though the only other signatories happen to be for-profit companies. The small number of non-profits in this category is really a testament to that we don't have enough public parks online. I should mention that when we signed, we didn't know that "trade associations" would be grouped with "companies," which is unusual. But it still is the most appropriate group for WMF.

Thanks, again, Yana, I've just added your information to the Kurier. Best Regards, Jürgen.

Stephen LaPorte

12:39 p.m.

Hi Jürgen, I noticed that the Internet Archive is another nonprofit organization listed as a "company" in the letter, so we are not alone. I like the analogy that Yana used to online public parks. When people have discussions about digital policy matters, I hope to see more public spaces like us in the future. On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 9:36 AM, Juergen Fenn <jfenn(a)gmx.net> wrote:

...

Am 20.05.2015 um 18:16 schrieb Yana Welinder <yana(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:

We were not listed as "civil society" because that group usually refers

to organizations that primarily do advocacy work. Instead, we signed as a "company," which would include both for-profit and non-profit companies, though the only other signatories happen to be for-profit companies. The small number of non-profits in this category is really a testament to that we don't have enough public parks online.

I should mention that when we signed, we didn't know that "trade

associations" would be grouped with "companies," which is unusual. But it still is the most appropriate group for WMF. Thanks, again, Yana, I've just added your information to the Kurier. Best Regards, Jürgen. _______________________________________________ Advocacy_Advisors mailing list Advocacy_Advisors(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors

-- Stephen LaPorte Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation *NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*

Victoria Baranetsky

1:19 p.m.

Mozilla was on the list, as well. Thanks for sharing that link Yana. It is absolutely true, there need to be more public parks. On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Stephen LaPorte <slaporte(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

...

Am 20.05.2015 um 18:16 schrieb Yana Welinder <yana(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:

We were not listed as "civil society" because that group usually refers

I should mention that when we signed, we didn't know that "trade

-- D. Victoria Baranetsky Legal Counsel *Wikimedia Foundation* *NOTICE*: This message might have confidential or legally privileged information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.

3263

days inactive

3264

days old

publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org

Manage subscription

5 comments

4 participants

tags (0)

participants (4)

Juergen Fenn
Stephen LaPorte
Victoria Baranetsky
Yana Welinder