Seth "crypto-activist" Finkelstein has written a great piece on the current process to reform the hateful Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which EFF published today. Called "How To Win (DMCA) Exemptions and Influence Policy," Seth's essay leays out the hows and whys of advocating for changes to the DMCA:
For example, consider censorware blacklists. The "use case" is research, investigation, and so, regarding what censorware in fact has on the blacklists. But the "class of works" is "compilations consisting of lists of websites blocked by filtering software applications".
So don't talk about fair-use as a principle in itself. Rather, focus on practical problems affecting a specific "class of works", as in perhaps "public domain works released on CSS-protected DVD disks".
This is not a situation where quantity (whether votes or money) is the key aspect. Rather, it's a case where a detailed, well-constructed, presentation can have an effect. And this is why an ordinary person can make a difference here. Better, if done properly, the requirements can even play into a technical person's strengths in formulating an argument which needs to meet certain specifications. It's just critical to keep in mind that this concerns empirical effects, not ideological axioms.
(Thanks, Fred!)
