The Untold DMCA Documentary — Will this ever be finished?!
So many years ago, I attended the first DMCA protest in Washington, DC. We determined, I was the one who travelled the most to get there. The story behind that was simple. I knew about the protest. I had to go. I was a comp sci student in Connecticut taking courses at Harvard’s Berkman Center. I was also involved in the IRC for Slashdot on Freenode - back in those days when lilo was managing freenode.
Well, the story moves like this - As part of the curriculum at Berkman, “Signal or Noise: the future of Music on the Net” was optional. Oh, I was going! There, I met for the first time - Face to Face - John Gilmore. We shared all of the lunch hour discussing freedom, the independence he had to be active with the community and EFF. I knew I recognized him. In fact, here we were - in a large crowd. Lawyers, students, computer science majors, etc. I was the only one to recognize “toad”? In fact, the funny thing about that is that I didn’t even recognize him from the EFF. It was DES cracker I recognized.
After speaking with him, he asked me the ultimate question that changed my life. “So, What have you done?”
What had I done? That was a good question. I mean, I was the ASASU Senator for Engineering at Arizona State. Really, though, what had I done there - edit or revise some bylaws, come head to head with Regents, helped implement the online registration system. So what. That really wasn’t important to me. Is that *all* that I had done.
The protest had come up about that time. So, I took my last 80 dollars and spent it on a train to D.C. I took the train out of New London, CT just after getting some required paperwork for a web app course - Did I mention the year was 2000? I realized 5 miles into New London that I had to turn back toward Norwich and get a signature. The prof was not going to be available by deadline and I was careless with the document requirements! I raced down 32 to get back to the college, get the signature and raced back to the train station. Fortunately for me, that train, was delayed! I made it!
On the way to D.C., I met a lady who conversed with me most of the way there. Upon arrival, we had some breakfast and I headed out to the park to meet the LUGs involved in the very first DMCA protest.
Once there, I met Serge Wroclawski, David Neimi, Peter Teuben, and others! We proceeded to create the signage, discuss the DMCA and then - protest. Most people we spoke with didn’t even know what the DMCA was!
A photography class took pictures of us holding up signage. My sign was simple. A DMCA with a circle and slash. Down with the DMCA. To this day, I have never seen any photos taken by those students. Interestingly enough, I wrote a few books - DMCA and A Decade of the DMCA. Would have loved to have a few of those images. Alas, nothing yet.
We explained the DMCA, handed out paperwork and had an overall good time. It was an exhilarating experience. We discussed how we could organize more protests. We were a small band of protesters… Declan was there from Wired to cover the event. The title of the article was “Geeks Protest, Nobody Comes” http://archive.wired.com/politics/law/news/2000/03/35178
At the time, 2600 0wn3d dmcasucks.com. So, I figured dmcasucks.org for the DMCA Protest site and to list scheduling would be appropriate! The forum was good and reported events and news. Since I was involved now, I started attending more protests and more events.
Where did I get the camera? I was a student, single mom of 3 kids with 0 child support and on a budget to say the least. I found my way to a pawn shop in Chandler, AZ - where I spotted the Hi-8 camera I could afford. This camera was used. I was such a novice back then. No tripod. No skills. However, I knew I wanted to document events like - Dmitry Rally with Larry Lessig and RMS.
I spent a good time at that rally interviewing and hanging out with RMS. I had written the book - DMCA using only free software. RMS was totally awesome. A short while later, he gave me an internship at the FSF where I worked on the Digital Speech project - now known as Defective by Design.
It’s been a great ride. I may not be rich, but my life has been full of richness beyond measure.
So, after Dmitry, I started helping with counter notifications to DMCA notifications. I met a lot of people and started to truly understand the impact.
In 2008, I spoke at the Last Hope. There, I connected with NYC anonymous and met biella. She ended up writing something for Wired too. I have the audio from the first anonymous visit to her classroom - somewhere. Incidentally - errata for her writing according to what I saw - it was mentioned there were no females at the DMCA protest in San Fran. If it was the 2001 protest for Dmitry - I beg to differ. I don’t look that butch… do I?
Who is this obscure person - Marcia Wilbur?
LOL. I know - right. I’m nobody. But I have a ton of video. Finally, after 15 years, I was able to convert the video properly - syncing audio and video with the help of a good friend and hacker. It only took a few hours. The initial idea was to keep it pure - using only free software. Ultimately, after waiting 15 years, I am trying to edit using only free software. That is not going to be as easy as using proprietary. Some of the video was converted back in the day using xawtv and ffmpeg. The rest was converted using a Mac. I admit it. It was more important to get the video released, than to wait another 10 years for me to have the time to convert and sync.
That Failed Kickstarted Campaign — Exit_Success!
I tried to hustle up the cash to get conversion supplies but fell miserably short.
The documentary made like 200 bucks and that went back to the donating parties. I was at a loss. Discouraged but then - a documentary producer/Director who made films for PBS and others lifted my spirits regarding this project. “Let me know if I can help. I would love to see this film, its an important topic!”
We exchanged emails. He really inspired me to do this right!
“Don’t release it if you are not happy with it. Documentary takes years, and something everything has to be scrapped and reshot.
This film will be historically important and shown for decades. Take your time, build your social networks and funding circles.”
“You can do this!”
These words were inspiring. I needed to get this done. Use ffmpeg and xawtv at this point? I suppose I could have done it that way.
Conversion Story - Running into an old friend
The story of conversion is a good one. One night, I was at the PAM - Phoenix Art Museum. It was the first Friday of the month. In Arizona, we do first Fridays where people attend for donation. There were so many people there. I didn’t want to peruse Andy Warhol’s exhibit with all this socializing going on. Where else could I go?
I knew where I needed to be. 2600 at HeatSync Labs. I pointed the Camaro in that direction and landed there. As I walked in, I saw 1 seat available. It was the right seat. Sitting there at the very end, next to one empty chair, was Aaron. For those who don’t know - he was the producer of Haxxxor 1 and 2. He had the video equipment. As a matter of fact, he said I was lucky to have run into him because he was getting rid of that equipment soon.
Back in the late 90s, Aaron and I went to 2600 down on Mill. We were college students - we met at Arizona State in a computer science course. Our professor was Richard Whitehouse. He taught me much more than C plus plus. Actually, he didn’t really even teach us C plus plus. He taught us the foundations of programming - loops, arrays and nothing language specific.
As for myself and Aaron, I recall we went to one at an Irish pub once too, I think. There was some beverage consumed that evening. At any rate, it had been years since I had attended a 2600 meeting. The funny thing was that it was his first time attending in years also. What are the odds?!
We hung out and converted video. It was the best time.
Now, I have all this video. I have time. Skills - I have skills. Hopefully, this documentary will be done in good taste - soon. Maybe before the 20th anniversary of the DMCA…
Note: So many people are not notably associated with copyright activism - They are the true heroes. They got out and protested. They organized protests, even when the EFF requested us to “stand down”. We knew it was out of Adobe’s hands. We had the courage to stand up.
It’s really easy to sit behind a computer and throw up links and blog today. In the early years, it took courage to put yourself out there - even blogging, not anonymously and protest the injustices of the DMCA.
I want this documentary to be a tribute to those people. The people who had nothing to gain but justice. My heroes.
The DOJ video was recently converted.
This trailer was made - prior to recent conversion - In fact, the video in this trailer was converted using xawtv and ffmpeg back in 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vL4ygDrUug
Music by Pajama Crisis
Back when I had a little money, I purchased some music from Emmett Plant and Pajama Crisis. I fully intend to incorporate those tunes.
Well, maybe there will be a positive update in the future…
Until then: Remember - Ignore your rights, they’ll go away!
