The projector was not working last night a the UCHUG in rm 401. So perhaps someone should bring one if they have one available. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neil Schneider" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Subject: Meeting tommorrow September 8, 2005 Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 14:55:04 -0700 (PDT)
> > Christian Seberino will doing a presentation: > > Intellectual Property Extremism: > > We are in the middle of the Intellectual Property Wars. This is sort > of the Civil Rights Movement of the 21st century. > > * Did you know that criminal charges were brought against a Linux > user just for trying to do the good deed of giving away software > to play DVDs? > * Did you know that if you design a Linux e-commerce application > that requires too few mouse clicks that you may be committing a > crime? > * Did you know that Linspire, a Linux company, is reconsidering a > decision to distribute software over peer-to-peer networks because > of the fear of legal retribution if they do? > * Did you know that Senator Berman of California recently proposed > a bill that in some cases would make it legal for others to hack > into your Linux PC without fear of liability? > > You'd almost think the US government had declared war on Linux and > open source! > > I framed these points to emphasize their impact on the Linux > community. Unfortunately, this war is wider than just some odd > discrimination against geeks. > > * Did you know that the Girl Scouts were sued for singing songs > around camp fires because they wouldn't pay up? > > I could go on and on with many more examples but you get the point. > > This extremism is sometimes justified today with references to the > sanctity of "property". Those who disagree are labelled as: > "anti-property", "un-American" and "pirates". Such rhetoric is a > ridiculous distortion of our history, the Constitution and common > sense. > > One severe handicap in fighting this war is that it is not quick and > easy to understand the counter-arguments we need to make against such > charges. > > We'd all rather be talking about interesting Linux software and > hardware at KPLUG meetings. If you can spare a short amount of your > valuable time, I'll try my best to give you a worthwhile overview to > enable you to talk intelligently about such matters and to prevent > yourself and others from becoming casualties. > > Most of this discussion will be "pirated" from Professor Lawrence > Lessig's book Free Culture . > > > > -- > Neil Schneider pacneil_at_linuxgeek_dot_net > http://www.paccomp.com > Key fingerprint = 67F0 E493 FCC0 0A8C 769B 8209 32D7 1DB1 8460 C47D > Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the > system of a regular government. > - Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832) > > > -- > [email protected] > http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
