Grant Gross, in an email, updates his excellent coverage of the Commerce Department’s Digital Rights Management meeting, which I blogged a couple of hours ago:

During this workshop, the Commerce Department was just not interested in hearing from the public. So to get the point across that the public wasn’t represented, the Free Software/Linux/fair use crowd almost had to shout and wave their hands.

Those tactics actually may have worked. Sources tell me that the Commerce Department is now asking around for suggestions on consumer advocates to include in a future workshop.

As for the EFF, Robin Gross tells me today that they’ve been invited to comment in writing, and the EFF is doing so.

Here’s what I *think* happened: The Commerce Department just didn’t comprehend that consumers might want to be part of this discussion about how to implement DRM. Groups like EFF just didn’t fit the focus of this meeting, so Commerce set up this workshop with the goal of getting the IT people and the Hollywood people talking again, but made no provisions for the public to participate.

Categories: Uncategorized dw