Digital Rights Ireland is looking for your support. We urgently need money to support our work. We’ve achieved a lot so far, but we need your help to go further. Go to the DRI ‘Support’ page to make a donation.

We use Paypal to collect donations – all you need is a credit card. If you would like to donate by cheque or by another method please contact us.

Want to know why you should pledge some money? Have a look at all we’ve achieved –

– Data Retention. DRI has focused attention on data retention, by lobbying, use of parliamentary questions and encouraging media scrutiny of the European Parliament?s vote to bring in a Data Retention Directive.

– Media Awareness. DRI has established itself as a point of contact for the media on digital rights issues. This is important, as editors are much more likely to run a story where they are able to present two competing views to their audiences. We?ve raised the profile of these issues across the entire range of media, including the Pat Kenny show, Newstalk FM, the Irish Times, Six One News, 2FM, Metro Ireland, the Star on Sunday, various local stations and (of course) internet news outlets such as The Register.

– Speaking up for innocent parties in the filesharing debate. DRI has intervened in the filesharing debate to speak up for the privacy rights of innocent parties. We have also attempted, with some limited success, to inform the courts of relevant precedent.

– Consumer Information. DRI has started producing reliable, readable, guides to users’ rights. So far, we have pamphlets on SMS Spam and Online Libel completed. More are in the works.

– Establishing a reputation. DRI has begun to introduce itself to the other players involved in rights protection. We?ve met with the Data Protection Commissioner and with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and have been in contact with the Human Rights Commission. We’ve made a formal submission to the European Commission on Irish privacy laws.

– International presence. DRI has established itself as Ireland’s point of contact internationally in the digital rights sphere. We’ve joined EDRI , and have close relations with the Open Rights Group in the UK. We have also established informal links with other groups, such as the EFF, Liberty and Privacy International.

At the same time, we’re working away behind the scenes on researching some of the issues which we expect to have to tackle in the months to come, such as the planned DNA Database and the proposals to introduce ID cards in Ireland.

Not a bad record for a three month old voluntary organisation working on a shoestring.

Mechanics: Where does the money go? Money pledged to DRI will go to a bank account owned by Digital Rights Ireland Limited, a company limited by guarantee, registered with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin. As such, annual accounts will be filed for the company, which will be publicly available.

Who are Digital Rights Ireland Limited? Our Directors are listed here with links to their personal sites. Full details can be inspected via the Companies Registration Office.