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EFF Fundraiser in Boston
Weld Pond writes "The Digital Commerce Society of Boston is holding a fundraiser for the EFF legal efforts in the DeCSS case. @Stake (nee l0pht) is one of the sponsors making this event possible. Come join us and put your money where your mouth is. Suggested minimum donation is $35. The details are in the
invitation. Geek warning: The Harvard Club of Boston requires jacket and tie. " One other note: I talked with some of the folks from OpenDVD last night, and there will be a fund setup within the week to help the legal defense fund. At the Beanie Awards, Alan Cox, who won the Unsung Hero Award, gave his $10,000 towards the defense fund - and we had a fundraiser later on in the evening.
Being a girl is so much easier. All we have to do for fancy dinners is wear last year's halloween costume without the makeup. Black, slinky witch dresses always get attention.
So Alan Cox gave his $10,000US to the EFF for defense. THAT floors me. But my respect for AC just went up a great deal.
I'd like to shake his hand someday. Hey, Alan, if you're ever in Portland, you've got a place to crash :-)
We could all learn from that example!
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Today, February 4 will also be a day of action planned against motion picture association. Protests are scheduled for today at movie theaters around the world, in over 100 cities. You can find more information here.
Go and tell people the truth about DeCSS! You can find flyers in multiple languages here.
Secondly, not everyone is a wealthy millionaire. $35 might not sound much, when the defence is probably going to cost a fortune, but it's a lot to some people. I spend less than that a week on food, gas and other essentials. I'm not complaining, I just think the perspective needs a little fine-tuning.
Also, don't just stick with the "big dinners". There are plenty of high school kids in the US, 4th - 6th formers in the UK who would be happy to chip in something to help kick an arrogant slug in the teeth. Ok, not many go around with $35 to throw around, but there's a hell of a lot more of them. If each kid in a typical school could splash in a solitary quarter, you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that ain't something to be sneezed at!
(It'd also get news footage. Your average Joe and Jane Bloggs in the streets doesn't care about the people they are told are pirates. They won't care about a fancy over-blown dinner party, either. But they'd pay attention when they see their little Mary Bloggs offering some of her allowance to "fight the oppressors". THAT would change public perception. FAST.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
... showing why he is the #2 man in the Linux Kernel.
I.e. He knows the right things to do in order to help move the community forward. He is a worthy successor to Linus. Which is kind of tricky since I think he actually seams older. ( Alan how old are you really ? )
As for this DVD thing. The sound bytes from LinuxWorld hint at VALinux getting involved. This makes perfect sense in light of how *I* ( and perhaps a very few others ) see this this thing going. I.e. Get an injunction against a well hated bogeyman like 2600.com then use it to keep serious Linux companies and Hardware manufacturers out of the DVD business.
Picture a DVD player that lets you do absolutely anything you want with the film including; cut and past to compare the holes on Neo's shirt when he is "dying" to the ones when he is "resurrected" ( Do they line up ? ).
This can be done with an OSS software player and DVD watching geeks sending code in. It won't happen with what exists now commercially. This scares the devil out of the existing licensees.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
no matter WHAT you do, when gold bricks start flying the scum crawls out of the woodwork to try and sell you a bridge over the East River - donations should end up in the right hands and not the trunk of some shyster speeding for the boarder...
No alter ego today
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I would like to propose a way for the open source community to participate more actively in legal matters. This would be a way for members of the community to directly assist the EFF.
We should create an open source forum for the creation of legal briefs and legislation, similar to existing open documentation projects. As a pilot, I recommend writing an amicus brief for the DeCSS case. Two other possible projects would be to draft alternative legislation to UCITA and submit a brief to the 9th Circut for the rehearing of the Bernstein case.
An EFF lawyer and/or other interested lawyers should take leadership roles in this. The basic idea is that people could do research and submit arguements and supporting cases & evidence. The lawyers would compile these and merge them into a final product and also compile "to do" lists, including questions for further research.
As with any open source project, individuals could take the output, modify it, and submit it as their own (with proper credit and a different name, of course).
I just made my little donation to the EFF, but I know money only goes so far. I hope to help in other ways too and wish the best for all involved.
You see, issues like this affects how others view me as a computer hacker. The RIAA and MPAA are trying to villify anyone who circumvents their method of crappy entertainment distribution. I'm a hardware guy that likes to find better forms of communication. Cassettes suck. CD's suck. MP3's rock. DVD writers with no mafia tax would rule.
Its not that I like to use new technology for commercial entertainment anyway. Mass storage and playback of multimedia has tremendous utility in almost any field I can think of; however, they wish to make the common tools of playback and recording unreachable. They have a dinosour of a business model and I feel it interferes with what I think is my right to use technology how I see fit.
Its good to see well organized rights group such as the EFF back principles I feel are important. They have my support and best wishes.
I'm going to e-mail and see if they will take a $100 donation pledge. I can't make it in person, but would like to be there in spirit. (Yeah, I know I could just send the $100 direct to EFF. I joined last year in support of their work in the DVD case.)
But to get to the subject: I would like to suggest that some of the deep-pockets companies like Red Hat or VA Linux make a challenge. For every dollar that us working stiffs donate, they'll donate a dollar or two. Like the pledge drives at your local NPR radio station. Instead of giving out mugs or tote bags, the sponsor can give out the right to put an "I donated" badge on their personal web site, with a link back to the donor's challenge page.
--Jim
But seriously, dressing up and booking the best damn club in town proves a point. This is not just another Kevin Mintnick case. What MPAA wants to do is tantamount to implementing Thoughtcrime. Giving up our t-shirts and sandals and donning the monkey suits we are so well known for loathing sends a clear message: We're serious. We're in this for blood, and we don't care if it takes wearing ties to get the job done....
I think Alan sent the loudest message of all. It's not about money, you (MPAA) idiots, although it may take money in the short run to set things right. It's about freedom. It's also about being assumed to be a heinous criminal when all you want to do is have a little harmless, and what should be totally legal, fun, in the privacy of your own computer room.
The kind of legalistic bullying being spouted forth by the likes of MPAA, Amazon, etoys, and the like, has got to stop. And it will... if enough of us beat on them long enough, each in our own way. Nobody said you in particular had to don a tie and go to Boston. I'm sure as hell not. But dig out the credit card and punch up eff.org, or go down to Kinkos and print some 2600 flyers, or just make your friends aware of the situation. Do your bit... and eventually, like a Buck-Buck line, if enough of us land on top of it with both feet, it will crumble.
That will be one hell of a party.
--
"Hey, hey, HEYYYYY!" -- Fat Albert, the Baddest Buck-Buck Breaker of'em all