Digital Copyright Canada

Dear Bill,

There are a number of Canadian rights organizations that would put 
your donation to good use. Here's a non-exclusive list of my 
favourites.

* Public Interest Advocacy Centre (Ottawa) http://www.piac.ca 
(privacy, digital divide, e-commerce, energy policy, etc.)
* Privaterra (Toronto) http://www.privaterra.org (a Canadian-based 
organization to bring infosec training and technology to human rights 
groups around the world, most recently in Guatamala).
* Rights & Democracy (Montreal) http://www.ichrdd.ca/ (democratic 
governance and human rights) (among their many other good works, they 
sponsored the Golden Shield report on Internet surveillance in China, 
which was extremely well done 
http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/globalization/goldenShieldEng.html
* Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (BC) 
http://www.fipa.bc.ca (privacy and freedom of information; largely 
directs the National Privacy Coalition, an informal coalition of 
individuals and organizations across Canada with interests in 
protecting individual privacy rights)

There are, of course, many foreign-based orgs as well.

* Electronic Privacy Information Center (Washington, D.C.) 
http://www.epic.org (privacy, free speech, Internet governance; EPIC 
most recently participated in the lawful access consultation here in 
Canada, is a frequent participant in international fora on 
cyber-rights issues and publishes the Privacy and Human Rights survey 
http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2002/ to name only one 
of its projects)
* Consumer Project on Technology (Washington, D.C.) 
http://www.cptech.org (one of the only groups working on the 
extremely important, but poorly-understood personal jurisdiction 
debate http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html)
* Cryptome (New York, NY) http://www.cryptome.org (free speech, 
privacy, crypto, etc.; not specifically an advocacy org, but provides 
an important service nonetheless)
* Public Citizen (Washington, D.C.) http://www.publiccitizen.org 
(lots of cyber-rights issues; the Public Citizen Litigation Group is 
currently involved in some potentially precedent-setting cases 
involving trademarks and domain names, see e.g. Taubman Sucks!)
* American Civil Liberties Union (New York, NY) http://www.aclu.org 
(mammoth rights organization that recently set up a special unit to 
deal with cyber-rights litigation; they have been involved in many of 
the leading Internet decisions, including - most notably - ACLU v. 
Reno, in which the Communications Decency Act was struck down).
* StateWatch (U.K.) http://www.statewatch.org (privacy, freedom of 
information, copyright, cybercrime, etc.; regularly get their hands 
on confidential EU documents pertaining to cyber-rights initiatives 
at the CoE, WIPO, etc.)

And, of course, EFF, which has already been mentioned.

I think who you donate too depends on what you're most interested in. 
There are no established Canadian public interest groups working on 
DRM, for example, and since many of the crucial DRM battles will be 
fought in the U.S. anyway, if you that is what you are interested in 
then donating to a U.S.-based organization makes a lot of sense. On 
the other hand, privacy and free speech issues are much more affected 
by a geographical jurisdiction's legal regime. If this is your 
interest, I would recommend donating to a Canadian-based 
organization, like PIAC.

Finally, do the research on what a particular organization is working 
on. You may want to tag your donation for a specific purpose or 
project; most orgs would be happy to accommodate your preferences.

Best regards,

Jason

P.S. One of the reasons Canada has a less rich tradition of public 
interest advocacy - aside from the smaller fund base - is that we 
often build those advocates right into the policy-making or 
administrative infrastructure. Information and privacy commissioners, 
the Copyright Board (ostensibly), and many others are testament to 
this.

At 09:20 -0500 03.01.14, Bill Traynor wrote:
>Where do you donate?
>
>As a Canadian citizen with specific interests in politics and
>technology, I'm at a loss to determine where my donation dollars would
>be best sent.  So I'd like to solicit advice and/or example as to where
>my hard earned money would be put to the best use.
>
>Is it:
>Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) - a purely American group,
>I believe
>Electronic Frontier Canada (www.efc.ca) - a Canadian group, but somewhat
>stagnant, although Jeffrey Shallitt (Vice President & Treasurer) has
>assured me that they are intending to become more active this year
>
>Are there others?
>
>Tax receipts would be ideal, but are not necessarily a prerequisite if
>the cause is worthy.
>
>Thanks
>Bill
>--
>For (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
>links to other related sites please see http://www.digital-copyright.ca

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http://www.privaterra.org
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For (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other related sites please see http://www.digital-copyright.ca

Digital Copyright Canada

Re: [d@DCC] a donation dilemma?

All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!