On Sun, 1 Jan 1995, Lile Elam wrote:
CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1994 //
Jacking in from the "Back to the Future" Port:
Washington, DC -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation has fired its Policy Director Jerry Berman and will soon release a sweeping new agenda for 1995 that promises to return the organization to its original grassroots beginning.
Asked to comment on his firing, Berman bristles and says: "I think that's baloney." Then he quickly adds: "Did you ever think I might have wanted to leave?"
Berman has, in fact, left EFF, to head a new, as yet unannounced, policy group called the Center for Democracy and Technology. His departure from EFF and the creation of CDT will be made public this week in a joint announcement with EFF, sources said. The official line that will be spun to the public is that the two came to a "mutual parting of the ways."
That benign statement, however, doesn't reflect the long hours of the behind the scenes deliberations, in which the language of the press releases will be a cautiously worded as an official State Department briefing.
Heroes and pioneers always take the arrows; EFF lately has looked more like a pin-cushion than its self-appointed role as protector of all things Cyberspace. The beleaguered organization has over the course of the past two years endured often withering criticism from the very frontier citizens it was sworn to uphold and protect.
The reason: A perceived move away from its grassroots activism to the role of a consummate Washington Insider deal maker.
Has anyone seen Monty Python's Life of Brian..... DO I hear a parallelism??? Something to the effect of "The PEople's Judean Front", "The Popular People's Front", and it goes on an on.... HOw about for the modern approach.... CDT, EFF, CPSR, Cypherpunks... Do I hear more.. Or are we so split up that we can't agree on our common goal.... Aaron