ORG celebrates its tenth birthday: a decade of UK digital rights!

Cory Doctorow 5:44 am Wed Oct 21, 2015

It's been ten years since Danny O'Brien, Suw Charman and I announced the formation of the UK Open Rights Group at the 2005 Open Tech conference and asked the assembled people to pledge to pay £5/month to help fund a UK-based digital rights group that would fight for their rights online — and everywhere.

In the decade since, the Open Rights Group has fought innumerable campaigns, winning key victories and growing to a size and efficacy that startles me every time I ponder it. The staff, supporters and volunteers who made ORG happen have a lot to boast about, and ORG has created an interactive timeline of its key milestones and battles for you to look over.

ORG depends on its members to stay in the fight. Here's where you join. ORG is the best hope we have for reminding the UK's political classes that the Internet isn't a better pornography distribution system, a glorified video on demand service, or a jihadi recruiting tool: it's the nervous system of the 21st Century, and should be regulated with the delicacy and gravitas that such an important system demands.

A History of Open Rights Group

Why I won't buy an Ipad: ten years later

Ten years ago, Apple released the Ipad. I was in a hotel room in Seattle, jetlagged and awake at 4AM while my wife and daughter slept. READ THE REST
Brexit means the UK will shelve the EU Copyright Directive (for now)

Last year, the EU adopted the incredibly controversial Copyright Directive (it passed by only five votes, and afterwards 10 MEPs said they'd got confused and pushed the wrong buttons!): now,… READ THE REST
Three years after the W3C approved a DRM standard, it's no longer possible to make a functional indie browser

Back in 2017, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approved the most controversial standard in its long history: Encrypted Media Extensions, or EME, which enabled Netflix and other big media… READ THE REST
Short Post, just one paragraph

Dessert cheesecake wafer bear claw fruitcake. Fruitcake chupa chups donut candy canes marzipan. Apple pie sweet roll tart chocolate cake macaroon marshmallow carrot cake gummi bears sweet. Pastry sugar plum… READ THE REST
Save 50% on a 1-year subscription to Dashlane's premium password manager

We all know vital information about ourselves and our private digital accounts can be compromised by cybercriminals. However, many would be frightened to know just how compromised they and their… READ THE REST
The Bite Helper removes the itch of a mosquito bite in seconds

While mosquitoes have certainly earned their title as the deadliest animal on earth, their impact on most of our lives is usually a lot less consequential. But even though they… READ THE REST