BART’s excuse for ripping down the ad was that it was “too dark” and not letting through enough light into the BART exit. However, we have pictures that show there was plenty of light coming through the ad (the ad is printed on a clear plastic material):

We then submitted the following revised ad with a white background. A white ad would have let even more light through (notice how bright the bottle is in the original ad above). However, it was rejected for having a solid white background (!).

At the ad agency’s request, we then made the background completely transparent. It’s a lot harder to read text on a transparent background… After complying with all their requests to change the ad, we still haven’t been given a firm date on when the ad will be back up.

Apple is a major BART advertiser (in the past they’ve plastered entire BART stations with iPod ads). Apple’s WWDC conference ends on Friday. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here… I’m sure our ad will conveniently be back up after WWDC ends.

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Thanks to Laurence Vandewalle for having invited me and given me the opportunity to speak on a Fair Use panel in the European Parliament together with Yann Ménière, Gwen Hinze (EFF), Laurence Lebersorg (Test-Achat) and Andrea Glorioso.

Power to the Parliament!

Taipei – IP Justice, a new international civil liberties organization focusing on global intellectual property issues, launched today from the APRICOT 2003 technology conference in Taiwan. The mission of the new advocacy group is to promote balanced intellectual property laws and protect freedom of expression in both traditional and digital media. A grassroots membership based organization with offices in San Francisco, IP Justice advocates for respecting the rights of both creators and consumers of intellectual property.

There’s an interview with Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, over at O’Reilly Network.