Attend Neil Gaiman discussion for free!

If you're a fan of writer Neil Gaiman (as I am, I rarely buy books but I have nearly all of his), you can get a free ticket to a discussion Piracy vs Obscurity - An audience with Neil Gaiman on Friday 24 Octoher 2008, 7-9 pm in London, just by joining the Open Rights Group between now and the event. It may particularly be of interest to writers and authors.

But you need to be quick - as I write there's only 7 free tickets left for new supporters (and 7 for existing ones who can attend for a fiver). It was open to the general public too, at £10 a head, but that's sold out now.

I'm a member of ORG, myself, and it's well worth it at only £5 a month for a year if you care about your civil liberties in the digital age and want to help try to ensure that:

• state and business powers in relation to things digital (e.g. CCTV surveillance of all citizens' traffic movements, or monitoring all websites you visit just to show you "more relevant" ads), and
• on the other side of the coin, digital restrictions on our rights as citizens and consumers,

will be sensible, balanced, proportionate and properly informed, taking into account how technology actually works in practice and its true possibilities and limitations - rather than being effectively dictated to politicians, some of whom barely know how to turn on their computers or program a video (granted, I struggled with some VCRs myself!), by those who have the most money and perhaps their own commercial or other interests to serve.

The details from the Eventbrite sign up page (via the Open Rights Group blog post mentioning the event):

Piracy vs Obscurity - An audience with Neil Gaiman

Friday, October 24, 2008 from 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM (GMT), London

Neil Gaiman, prolific creator of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama, is known as one of the world's top ten living post-modern writers. He is also patron of the Open Rights Group (ORG). In this, the first public appearance of his Graveyard Book UK tour, he invites fans and ORG supporters to discuss piracy from the perspective of a creator, what it means to be one of the tribe of readers, and why most people discover their favourite authors for free.

Entry to this special event is free to new supporters of ORG who join between now and the event. Existing ORG supporters will be charged a discount rate of £5 and the general public will be asked for the full price of £10. Click here to join ORG.

Attendees will receive an A3 poster celebrating the publication of Neil's latest work, The Graveyard Book, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book.

Agenda

19.00 - Doors open. We'll welcome you into the crypt with wine and nibbles.

19.30 - Neil's talk starts and will be followed by an extended Q&A

21.00 - The talk finishes and all attendees are invited for a drink to the private upstair rooms of an adjacent pub, The Three Kings.

Tags: Open Rights Group, ORG, Gaiman, Neil Gaiman, civil liberties, authors, writers, writing, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience