The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Jen Howard, Free Press, 202-265-1490, x22
Sarabeth Patch, Digital Freedom Campaign, 202-683-3111

Digital Freedom Campaign and Free Press Join Forces

WASHINGTON

The Digital Freedom Campaign, a broad-based coalition dedicated to
defending the rights of artists, consumers and innovators in the
Digital Age, today announced its partnership with Free Press, a
national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting universal
access to communications. Free Press will join a growing, national call
for an open and diverse Internet, one that prohibits corporate
interests from controlling users' online experience.

"Free Press, as a true leader in protecting the Open Internet,
brings hundreds of thousands of voices to the Digital Freedom
Campaign's call to protect the rights of consumers, artists and
innovators in the Digital Age," said Maura Corbett,
spokesperson for the Digital Freedom Campaign. "Unlike other groups out
there suggesting that the Internet be filtered, monitored and
controlled, both of our organizations feel strongly that it is not the
role of our government to favor one industry over another, protect one
business model over another or ensure the success of one technology at
the expense of the rest," Corbett continued. "And so, this partnership
is a natural, and an Open Internet is at its core."

"The Digital Freedom Campaign champions the idea that no corporate
interest should come between users and the open Internet," said Ben Scott,
policy director of Free Press. "The Internet's open design ensures that
users are free to run whatever legal content and applications they
want, from the array of choices that others are free to offer. The
future of online innovation depends on protecting this permission-free
marketplace."

Free Press and members of the Digital Freedom Campaign look forward
to collaborating on their work with policymakers, content and
technology companies to find real and meaningful solutions to copyright
reform in the Digital Age. This reform must include fair compensation
for artists, balanced protections of intellectual property as well as
the free flow of information and equal protection of consumer and
innovator rights.

"The government's only job should be to protect the right to
innovate, and let the market decide the rest," continued Corbett.
"Abandoning those principles is not worth any price. Protecting those
fundamentals is everything."

Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.

(202) 265-1490