GeekPAC

Our Mission

GeekPAC is a group of concerned citizens dedicated to hot-button political technology issues that affect our daily lives, from copyright reform and the DMCA, to patent reform, net neutrality and online privacy. From our current mission statement:

GeekPAC is dedicated to the idea that all people have certain inalienable rights which are not circumscribed by the proliferation of technology. These rights include the right to privacy, the right to access what you legally possess, the right to pursue information unhindered by a network service provider, and the right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure by the government. GeekPAC works to ensure that these and other issues are used as the basis for sourcing political candidates in elections, as well as lobbying for and against legislation.

Information Rights are Human Rights

One of our key objectives is to point out that as a direct result of closed formats and artificial barriers to entry, the digital divide continues to grow and prevent many from a fair shot at competing in a global economy. While computing has ascended to the point of fundamental economic driver and a utility along the same lines as power generation and telecommunications, our regulatory systems have been slow to recognize it as such. As a result, data formats are not standardized and companies are given free reign to prevent access by users, even if they are paying customers. We feel that, as digital information has become the cost of doing business in the 21st century, we must work to ensure that everyone has the right to access the information they legally possess. Without protected information rights, large numbers of people will continue to be locked out with no hope of fully participating in the global economy.

Read the position paper here, where I lay out why GeekPAC is needed and why you should get involved.

What We Are Doing About It

This site was inspired by strenuous lobbying against AB 1668, introduced by Mark Leno on February 23, 2007. That bill intended to “require all state agencies, beginning on or after January 1, 2008, to create, exchange, and preserve all documents, as specified, in an open extensible markup language-based, XML-based file format, and to start to become equipped to receive any document in an open, XML-based file format, as specified.”

We were appalled by the duplicitous arguments used in opposition, so we put together this site in an attempt to marshal support for the bill. That bill met an unfortunate end, but GeekPAC lives on. GeekPAC is dedicated to building grassroots support for “geek” political issues so that never again will citizens be unaware of these issues that affect their daily lives. We aim to accomplish this by gathering information about politicians and candidates for office related to their respective positions on information rights: their voting record, stated positions on issues, and who funds them.

We also have a variety of other initiatives which we will launch in the coming year. Look for more announcements in the very near future.

GeekPAC Status

We are in the process of filing articles of incorporation as a non-profit organization in the State of California. To help in this process, visit our Fundable.org page! We are in the process of raising $2,200.

Contact Info

To participate in BytesFree.org, join the bytesfree-discuss mailing list.

To send a private note that will be read by a human being, send email to bytesfree@bytesfree.org