Sure, let's do an April meeting. I'd like to have us have a serious discussion and decide upon a course of action such as a petition signing concerning the CBDTPA ( Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act). I'm not trying to cry the sky is falling, but some pundits say that free and open source software (Linux) could be made illegal or at least put under government regulation if the bill is passed.
From: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51274,00.html "No more than two years and seven months after the bill becomes law, the only code programmers and software firms will be able to distribute must have embedded copy-protection schemes approved by the federal government." and: "Legal experts said on Friday that the CBDTPA regulates nearly any program, in source or object code, that runs on a PC or anything else with a microprocessor." and finally: "If the CBDTPA were to be enacted, American developers would be sharply restricted in their ability to collaborate with their counterparts overseas. In a worst-case interpretation, for instance, the CBDTPA means that only pre-ban versions of the Linux operating system could legally be sold inside U.S. borders." I personally think we should all take a good look at: http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/ and follow their suggested courses of action. If you are not aware of it, Sen. John Breaux is a co-sponsor of the bill. I'm not sure what the best action to take now is, but let's put our heads together and do something about it. If you don't think something like this can pass, I have 4 letters for you: DMCA (http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/). It passed and is now a law. John Hebert --- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm not sure what is going on. I'm just too busy > this semester to > effectively organize these meetings. I think John H. > was interested in > keeping the April meeting, but I haven't heard back > about a planned topic. > Also, I have no idea about the status of the parking > passes. > > Regards, Dustin "What am I good for?" Puryear > > > At 08:08 PM 3/25/2002 -0600, you wrote: > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >Hash: SHA1 > > > >After having just taken a look at the website, I > noticed that the subject > >matter for the upcoming meeting is still listed as > "TBA". Are plans > >finalized such that we are definitely having a > meeting? Have parking > >arrangements been taken care of? Thanks. > > > >- -K > > > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > >Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) > >Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org > > > >iEYEARECAAYFAjyf2DAACgkQbEtyhle52RuI/wCeJMK37rq6tr1wtABE5slq7tBc > >tZ0AmgMIrLtZrxywpIR8Oe8ur0jTSlxo > >=iL7O > >-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > >================================================ > >BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group > >Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. > >Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change > >your subscription information. > >================================================ > > > --- > Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Information Systems Contractor > http://members.telocity.com/~dpuryear > PGP Key available at http://www.us.pgp.net > In the beginning the Universe was created. > This has been widely regarded as a bad move. - > Douglas Adams > > ================================================ > BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group > Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. > Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change > your subscription information. > ================================================ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards® http://movies.yahoo.com/ ================================================ BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change your subscription information. ================================================
