August 22nd EFF Benefit Party at the DNA Lounge

Jamie Zawinski writes "Mark your calendars: on Thursday, August 22nd, we're throwing a benefit party for the EFF at DNA Lounge in San Francisco! In addition to great music from DDR, Kid606, and many others, you can also witness the carnage of the first ever Wil Wheaton versus Barney Celebrity Boxing Match! Can Wil, with his backing from the EFF, protect free speech and parody on the Internet and defeat Barney and his team of corporate lawyers? You can also join us earlier in the evening and meet Wil at a special VIP party: see the DNA Lounge announcement or the EFF press release for more details." Even if you can't attend, isn't now a good time to renew your membership?

Comments

Take This Seriously, Buddy

[capt.Hij]

The "boxing match" sounds hilarious, and the event appears like it would be gobs of fun. Unfortunately, though, a lot of people don't take the EFF seriously, and they don't take their goals seriously. It is counter-productive if our political representatives come to think of the RFF as simply a bunch of irreverent nerds.

Personaly, I am an irreverent nerd, and after years of not going to therapy I've come to like it. I also am willing to recognize that others haven't reached that point in their social development. The EFF is an important organization doing good work, but they need to be more careful in how others perceive them if they want to be an effective lobbying organization.

And, yes this is a rather sad statement.

Re:Take This Seriously, Buddy

[vidarh]

Copyright owners have no obligation to defend their copyrights. You may be thinking about trademark owners, who may lose trademark protection if they don't protect their mark.

Re:Take This Seriously, Buddy

[GregGardner]

You obviously didn't read the "Barney" link in the article. If you had, you would find that the EFF was hosting a site that posted the parody, they didn't put it up themselves, the site is no longer hosted by the EFF, and there is a long standing legal precedent of parody being protected by the First Amendment.

You know, the First Amendment, one of the laws that EFF members like you and I pay the EFF to defend online.

Barney

[MullerMn]

That letter to the lawyers threatinging the EFF with regards to the Barney parody (linked in the blurb above) is a good fun read.

All it's missing is the line "Say my name, Bitch" at the end.

Slashdot must really hate Wil Wheaton

[Kj0n]

This is already the fourth time that his website gets slashdotted.

East Coast

[Olinator]

These benefits in SF are nice and all for those of us who live somewhere out there or can afford airfare, but it'd be awful nice if the EFF would put together some high profile get-togethers in Boston or New York, somewhere us rightcoasters can get to without having to surrender umpteen forms of ID along the way.

Here's an idea: make sure there's a benefit scheduled to coincide with LISA in Philly. I'll go!

Ole

PS. EFF, if you're listening -- get your damn secure site fixed -- the last time I tried to donate, the site barfed; I had to print out a page with my CC info filled in and fax it -- and I still never actually got billed.

Good Lord

[fritter]

...you can also witness the carnage of the first ever Wil Wheaton versus Barney Celebrity Boxing Match! Can Wil, with his backing from the EFF, protect free speech and parody on the Internet and defeat Barney and his team of corporate lawyers?

Obviously I haven't really woken up this morning and this is some kind of weird Slashdot dream.

The absolute best part....

[Lumpy]

is the link in the main story that is kinda- hidden. Click on the barney link and read. in fact this needs to be printed and given to every CEO.

This is what lawyers are supposed to do.. in legaleze completely smack the face of the scumballs that send out threats like candy-grams.

This letter in it's own made me renew right away.

Why should I join?

[bruthasj]

You know, I believe in liberty. But that doesn't mean I immediately grasp blindly to anyone's political agenda. Now I am not being condescending on anyone here, but would like to get a broader perspective here.

There may be a scale issue here, where I just don't belong on that far side of the scale. What should I do?

And, please, give me some counter-arguments too. Why should I *not* join the EFF?

I'd hate to join a group where I can't agree with 100% of their political agenda. I'd rather not debate the issues, but want a perspective from all sides on the scale... Of course, this site might well be one-sided on the issue.