[Chapter-delegates] Appointment of former MPAA CTO Paul Brigner as North American Regional Director of Internet Society

[Steve Crocker]

David

Let me add to Jason's and Lynn's support of Paul.  I'm one of the co-authors of the white paper arguing against COICA/PIPA/SOPA, and I spent a LOT of time in meetings with legislators, policy people in the administration, and industry people pushing hard against the DNS blocking portion of those bills.  This brought me in contact with Paul.  He worked actively over the past few months to organize constructive dialog with the MPAA.  Despite having spent a year with the MPAA, he's one of the good guys.  I think the better point of view is that he brings knowledge of how "those guys" think and he is not at all captured by them.

Steve



On Mar 21, 2012, at 2:45 PM, Lynn St.Amour wrote:

> 
> On Mar 21, 2012, at 11:26 AM, Livingood, Jason wrote:
> 
>>> I am profoundly disturbed by the appointment of Paul Brigner as North
>>> American Regional Director of the Internet Society.
>>> 
>>> In his previous position as Chief Technology Officer at the Motion
>>> Picture Association of America (MPAA) he worked for the passage of PIPA
>>> and SOPA.
>> 
>> <snip>
>> 
>>> The effective endorsement of MPAA policy positions by the Internet
>>> Society with the appointment of Brigner threatens to poison those
>>> relationships and severely damage the good name of the Internet Society.
>>> 
>>> I respectfully request that you reconsider the appointment of Paul
>>> Brigner as North American Regional Director of the Internet Society.
>> 
>> I really hope you give Paul a chance to show you what he can do. He worked
>> for the MPAA for just one year. COICA, SOPA, and PIPA were in the works
>> for significantly longer than that so I seriously doubt Paul had any hand
>> in crafting those policy positions. Working on issues of copyright and
>> blocking is important to ISOC and having someone with close knowledge of
>> that seems to me to be valuable.
>> 
>> His full CV is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbrigner which says to me
>> there is a lot he brings to the table.
>> 
>> - Jason
>> 
> 
> Jason,
> 
> Indeed and thank you.  And David, thank you for your obvious concern for ISOC and our MIssion.  I won't jump in now as much of what I would say has already been said, but I am confident Paul will be a great asset and an ally.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Lynn
> 
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