NYLUG Demonstration At DVD Trial

Billy Donahue writes "The New York Linux Users Group (www.nylug.org) is demonstrating outside the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan. Linux users, free software enthusiasts, and civil libertarians will unite in a show of support for technology journalist Emmanuel Goldstein, editor of 2600 Magazine (www.2600.com). Hundreds of people in town for H2K will be there, including Richard Stallman and several other notable hackers. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan.. Please come by if you can! Press release here." I'm going down there to take a gander at both the trial and demonstration - should be interesting.

Comments

argh

[phUnBalanced]

I wish I could go. How come nothing ever happens in DC? Oh wait... there was that one thing...

Demonstration is still going on, come on down!

[isaac]

I was just at the demonstration, pretty decent turnout (enough to fill the area allowed), and the people walking by have generally been receptive to our message. Handouts with the css_unscramble.c on one side and a short background on the matter at hand on the other are being given out, along w/ DeCSS t-shirts, etc.

If yer in NYC, you should come down, even if only for your lunch break.

-Isaac

Re:Demonstration is still going on, come on down!

[MrBrklyn]

It seems that quite a bit of coverage of the DVD trail is taking hold in
the media. I even saw an article on this in the NY Post, although it
failed to mention the protest.

We got fairly lucky on the Protest because I ran into Jerrold Nadler,
who is the Congressman for the Upper West Side and Boro Park in
Brooklyn. He may be the Representative of many of you in Manhattan. I
used to live in his district, but I no longer do.

We need to now strike a legislative dialog with Nadler. To me, he's one
of the best representatives in the state. He's usually informed, bright
and and unafraid to take a position.

We need to start a legislative movement to protect Fair Use. Clearly,
the provisions in the DMCA of 1998 designed to protect "Fair Use" and
property rights are being run roughshod by the Kaplan Court. Most
importantly, this quote by the MPAA is offensive. It is reported by
CNET at

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2274970.html? tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

"DeCSS is simply the 'lock pick' in the high-tech crime of breaking into
another person's digital property," the MPAA said in a statement
posted on its Web site. "The First Amendment (the legal right to free
speech) provides no protection for such conduct."

We need Congress to pass a law and for Nadler office to put forward a
bill which reinforce "Fair Use" in statutory law, reinforcing it's
Constitutional Status as the rights of the public.

First, we need a law which explicitly makes clear that a normal retail
transaction for a physical copy of any media gives possession
as property of that disk to the purchaser of the disk, just like it
does with a pair of shoes. Therefor, the analogy that someone picks a
lock of something that they actually own can be ended both legally and
philosophically. One is allowed to pick the lock of something they
OWN. Since a DVD is purchased without a negotiated contract, in a
simple cash transaction, the ownership of the lock of the DVD is in the
hands of the disk owner.

Secondly, we need a law which explicitly gives the owners of media which
contain copyrighted material, explicit "Fair Use" protection and
"Reverse Engineering" protection which explicitly takes priority over
any DMCA protections, or any other protections. Despite the attempt of
Congress to include "Fair Use" protection in the DMCA, without which the
law would not have been passed by Congress, the law was written against
itself in section 1201 and Judge Kaplan is ignoring these protections in
the Courtroom. As such, these "Fair Use" protections must be reinforced
and made clear. It must be clear that prior authorization of the
Copyright Holder is unneeded by those attempting reverse engineering or
Fair Use.

Thirdly, we should empower the Copyright Office to remove Copyright
protection from any individual who abuses Copyright to the detriment of
Fair Use through frivolous lawsuits. COpyright should be removed from
any Company which has abused it's limited license to monopoly control of
Copyrighted Material by preventing the educational process or economic
development through reverse engineering. Teeth need to be put into the
Law to prevent abuse of power.

Lastly, we need a change in Copyright which allows for the ending of
Copyright of Software and Content which is no longer available from the
Copyright Holder at a fair market price. This will force Software
Companies to continue to make available important business software and
end the unfair forced upgrade of working products and games, or to hand
over control of them to people who see a reason to do so.

http://www.nyfairuse.org

--
Ruben I Safir

Re:So that means

[rjamestaylor]

Troll? Don't you moderators remember the DC protest of, say, 2&frac12 people?

So I was wrong and more people turned out--can you say it was a TROLL to push those who could go to not let DC happen again?