Remembering Ville Oksanen

From EDRi: Ville Oksanen, Vice President and a founding member of Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi), passed away on Sunday 23 November 2014 in Helsinki from a sudden illness. He was 37 years old.

Ville was one of the founders of EDRi’s Finnish member organisation Effi, and a key contributor throughout the existence of the association.

He acted as the president of Effi from 2004 to 2005, and on 2011 he was appointed as an Honorary Member in recognition of his tireless work, which he continued to his last days. He also regularly represented EDRi in World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) meetings, and was an active contributor to EDRi-gram.

Besides his work for Effi and EDRi, Ville worked as researcher in Aalto University, and as lawyer in Turre Legal, a law firm specialised in technology, media and copyright issues.

Ville was known as a hard-working defender of civil rights, especially digital rights and freedom of expression – he participated actively in public debate on these issues, significantly influencing the development of digital rights issues on both national and EU level.

Ville’s absence leaves a wide gap to the digital rights scene, and also in our hearts and minds. He was a warm, friendly and humorous person who will be dearly missed. In the future we will often wonder what Ville would have said and done. He believed that we can change the world for the better, and we will continue in his footsteps to do so.

EDRi-gram, EDRi Brussels office and Effi express their sincerest condolences to Ville’s family and friends.

From IP-Watch: We are stunned by this news, and remember Ville warmly for his work at WIPO and on European copyright issues. In late October, Ville published a passionate piece from Effi in Intellectual Property Watch on a vote in the Finnish Parliament on changes to Finnish copyright law. He said Parliament would have to  “make a concrete decision on whether it listens to the copyright industry lobbyists or to ordinary citizens who have expressed their desire to make the copyright law fairer and more just for the society.” The measure was defeated.

On 11 November, he explained the outcome to IP-Watch: “Rather ugly – in the end there was only one vote instead of the promised vote on the 4 separate issues. 27 MPs (out of 200) voted in favour, including 10 members from the coalition party (that was a small surprise because the chairwoman of the committee is also from that party). Anyway the initiative is now officially dead.”

Obituaries published in the Finnish press:

Effi suree Ville Oksasen poismenoa (23.11.2014) https://effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/effi-suree-ville-oksasen-poismenoa.html

Yksilön oikeuksien puolustaja, Ville Oksanen 1976–2014 (25.11.2014)

http://www.hs.fi/ihmiset/a1416802655649

Digivaikuttaja Ville Oksanen on kuollut (24.11.2014)

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1416714841229

Digioikeusaktivisti Ville Oksanen on kuollut (24.11.2014)

http://www.digitoday.fi/tyo-ja-ura/2014/11/24/digioikeusaktivisti-ville-oksanen-on-kuollut/201416228/66

Ville Oksanen kuollut (24.11.2014)

http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/ville+oksanen+kuollut/a1031223

Muistokirjoitus: Ville Oksanen @villoks (24.11.2014)

http://suomenkuvalehti.fi/kohinaa/muistokirjoitus-ville-oksanen-villoks/?shared=822-06bf3af8-999

Väsymätön digioikeuksien puolustaja – Ville Oksanen 1976 – 2014 (25.11.2014) http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2014112518865956_du.shtml

(Contribution by EDRi-member Effi, Finland)