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Wednesday 16 February 2000: Eben Moglen will speak on DVD, the law, and Free Software



From: secretary@lxny.org
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 15:59:58 -0500

At 6:00 pm sharp in the IBM building at 57th Street and Madison Avenue on
the Island of Manhattan, Eben Moglen, hacker, lawyer, scholar, and free
software partisan will speak to NYLUG about how to stop and roll back the
present large scale assaults on our rights to be secure in our homes and
to code, license, and publish our own works as we please.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

Artists concerned about their rights to make art and to get paid for
making art are particularly invited.  Lawyers specializing in
constitutional, international, and property law are also specially
welcome.  And so is every human being who thinks that when you buy a wax
disk, you are allowed, in the privacy of your own home, to look at the
grooves with as high power a microscope as you own.

At this meeting working groups will be formed.

Official NYLUG notice below.

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org



From: Jim Gleason <jgleason@electriclichen.com>
To: nylug-talk@nylug.org, nylug-announce@nylug.org
Subject: [nylug-announce] Dr. Eben Moglen, Columbia Law School,
     on DVD & OpenSource

        *** New York Linux Users Group February Meeting ***

                           - NYLUG.org -

        Dr. Eben Moglen, Columbia Law Professor and General
        Counsel to the Free Software Foundation, discusses
                       DVD and OpenSource.

Wed. 2/16/00
6:00-7:40pm
IBM Building
590 Madison Avenue at 57th Street
Check in at lobby for badge and room number.

*note* This meeting starts one half hour earlier than usual.

- ---------------------------- The Deal -------------------------------------

Until recently, the only computers on which a person could play DVD movies
were Macintosh and Windows systems. Deeming the Linux market to be to
small, the DVD consortium did not release any documentation for vendors to
create products. In order to get his Linux machine to play DVD,
Jon Johansen, a 16 year old in Norway, reversed engineered the CSS
algorithm which encrypts DVD content. Police staged a surprise raid on his
home, confiscated computer and telephone equipment, arrested both Jon and
his father and according to Johansen, subjected them to questioning for
approximately 6-7 hours apparently without a lawyer. It is reported that
the charges carry fines and prison terms of up to two years.

Since then, hundreds of defendants from around the world have been named in
a lawsuit by the DVD Copy Control Association, a non-profit organization
which represents the motion picture industry. The lawsuits aim to stop
people from carrying or even linking to websites that carry the
de-encryption code.

CNN reports that it took years for the movie industry to agree to this
encryption standard and that Johansen's code fosters piracy. Opendvd.org
claims the code is not against the law because the DMCA (Digital Millenium
Copyright Act) clearly states that "reverse-engineering on the basis of
interoperability" is legal.

Join us on Wednesday night, 2/16, when Dr. Eben Moglen discusses DVD and
Open Souce. Dr. Moglen is a professor at Columbia Law School specializing
in legal history and computer law and has been a designer and implementer
of advanced computer languages at I.B.M. He received his J.D. and PH.D.
from Yale University and serves without fee as general counsel to the Free
Software Foundation. His publications and other information can be found
on his homepage at http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu

Note that Dr. Moglen must leave at 7:40pm, so let's all please focus our
questions and make efficient use of his time.

- -----------------
Stand-by Marchers
NYLUG.org is receiving sign-ups for people who can make themselves available
on short-notice to march peacefully in front of the courthouse should the
MPAA choose New York City as a jurisdiction for its next hearing. If you
want to become a stand-by marcher, please send me email at: jim@valinux.com.

- -------------------------------
After the Meeting... Stammtisch

Join us around 8:00pm or so at the Typhoon Brewery and Restaurant located
at 22 East 54th Street between Madsion and 5th Aves.

- --------------
Swag Give-Away

Mucho leftovers from LinuxWorld Expo. Come and get 'em.

- ----------------------------------
Where & When is the NYLUG Meeting?

With the generous support of IBM, all regular NY-LUG meetings are held at
the main IBM building at 590 Madison Avenue at 57th Street in mid-town
Manhattan every third Wednesday of the month starting at 6:30pm. All
meetings are free and open to the public.

- -------------
Mailing Lists

* nylug-talk
Talk Mailing List for people to contribute and resolve each other's
technical problems.

* nylug-announce
Announce Mailing List for speaker and installfest announcements.

To post a message to the talk mailing list, address it to
nylug-talk@nylug.org

- -------------
List Archives

Thanks to Eric Berg, we now have sortable archives from 1999 and in new
millenium. Check it out at: www.nylug.org

- --------
Contacts

Jim Gleason, President, jgleason@nylug.com
Eric Berg, Vice President, eberg@nylug.org

- --------------
What is Linux?
http://www.nylug.org/about_linux.html

- ------------------
What is NYLUG.org?

NYLUG (www.nylug.org) is New York's Linux Users Group supporting all
things Linux and Open Source in the New York metro area. Please feel
free to contact me if you have any questions about the NYLUG.org.

- --------------
Special Thanks

Many thanks go out to Peter Norton and Barry Hughes, NYLUG's lead
engineers at LinuxWorld Expo, and all of the other NYLUGGERS who
volunteered. It was a huge success. Good job everybody!

- ---------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Gleason               VA Linux Systems
email: jim@valinux.com    http://www.valinux.com
phone: 212-858-7684       President, New York Linux Users Group
fax: 212-858-7685         http://www.nylug.org
- ---------------------------------------------------------------

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