I’ll admit I was all a twitter to here Michael Geist speak.  Having followed his extensive blog, on a semi-regular basis, and having seen the incredible variety and sheer mass of material that he posts there, I had built him up to be the kind of superhero that Gordon Duggen, in portrays himself to be in <a href=“http://www.appropriationart.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/51_state.pdf”> 51st State The Fight to Save Canada</a>.  I wondered which of Geist’s personas would we, the audience, encounter tonight, the indefatigable advocate, the law professor, or columnist? 

As Geist began to speak this question was quickly answered. Geist, the advocate was present! He indicated that his talk was divided into two sections.  In the first he would speak about what had happened on the copyright front in Canada recently and then he would address the question ‘Why Protest?’  Geist began with a very brief sketch of the recent history of copyright legislation in Canada, and quickly turned to the issue of advocacy, taking the audience on a whirlwind tour of a host of activities and actions taken by Canadians promoting fair copyright.  Many of these activities began as Geist’s own initiatives, but things like his Facebook group, protesting Bill C-61, soon snowballed to include the participation of thousands.  I won’t repeat Michael’s excellent post below, but Geist presented a seemingly endless list of such initiatives.

Geist turned next to the question of why Canadians are protesting this issue.  He broke his answer down in to four points.  First, that social technologies have made it easier to effect change through protest than ever before. This led to the point that, the government, following the lead of the “interweb” is slowly becoming 2.0 itself.  Next, he pointed out that protesting copyright reform was ‘not just about copyright but about our digital future’. Technology is developing in a way that is not compatible with the vision endorsed by the supporters of C-61.  In order to ensure that this technology is able to continue to develop, to best serve the needs and desires of the populace, bills like C-61 that would necessarily hijack these developments need to be stopped.  Finally, Geist said that Canadians should protest because the bill limits what he called “copyright choices.” Following this, Geist went on to briefly describe ‘Part III’ of his talk addressing the future of copyright in Canada and, in his view, the inevitable rebirth of C-61 under another name.

Geist was asked about what initiatives Canadians should take when C-61 makes its return.  He answered this question primarily by suggesting that Canadians should keep doing what they had for C-61 the first time.  This troubled me.  It seemed to me that despite all of the protesting C-61 was going to be passed.  The only thing that prevented this was the timing of the recent election.  Facebook groups, wikis, the presence of the issue on twitter are all wonderful, but the internet is a big place and I was left wondering if many of these initiatives were preaching to the converted.   If copyright activists are wrongly stereotyped as being “geeks in basements with computers” than perhaps it is time for the thousands who support the initiative, on the web, to bring the same numbers and enthusiasm to the streets.