Friday protest/leaflet event. MPAA/DVD

[Scott Dier - dieman <dieman@ringworld.org>]

Hello.

I am a member of a local group called TCLUG, or the Twin Cities Linux
Users Group (http://www.mn-linux.org/).  A couple of the members and I are
going to be posting/giving out the "Stop the MPAA" flyer around the
Minneapols campus of the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities this friday.
(Perhaps even a movie theatre)

I am writing this messge because I am seriously worried about the
connotations brought across from just saying that 2600 is going to be up
in arms.  This is in no way saying that 2600 is bad.  I feel that public
opinion of 2600 is low and people just see them as people who want to get
around the law for their own good.

This protest is being formed for two reasons.

A) MPAA is taking legal action against people who distribute the legally
developed source code that happens to decrypt the DVD format so players
could be developed for linux and other currently unsupported platforms.
This is a great example of how the opensource movement doesn't just sit
around and and wait, they work together to obtain a solution if they want
one.

B) The MPAA got the goverment of a foreign country that does not call
reverse-engeneering illegal to arrest one of the co-authors of the DVD
decryption source and take their computer equipment.  This person is now
free, but it raises questions of what control the MPAA is exacting from
foreign governments.  His equipment is still being held.

Please, I urge you to link to http://www.opendvd.org/ .

Thank you for your time and coverage of this issue!

You can release my name, "Scott Dier," in association with this
information. Please contact me at 612-301-0265 if you require some sort of
confirmation.  

This is not an 'official' TCLUG email in any means, and should not be
viewed other than an opinion of one member of TCLUG.

-- 
Scott Dier <dieman@ringworld.org> #nicnac@efnet 612.301.0265
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