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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.
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)
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).
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.
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"Hey, hey, HEYYYYY!" -- Fat Albert, the Baddest Buck-Buck Breaker of'em all