Re: [TCLUG:13418] Protest Aftermath

["Eric M. Hopper" <hopper@omnifarious.mn.org>]

On Sat, Feb 05, 2000 at 10:58:23AM -0600, Mike Hicks wrote:
> Well, I must say that standing out in the cold for two hours freezing my
> toes off was a learning experience that I didn't really expect.  It is
> essential to have a clear and concise message to say to people..  That
> is something I was lacking.  I tried hard to find something to say
> quickly, but my brain was pretty well frozen at the time.  Now that I'm
> thawed out, I can think again.

	The tack I used is to first ask people if they knew what a DVD
was, and then ask them if they knew it was 'encrypted'.  Sometimes they
said they didn't know what encryption was and things,but maybe that's
irelevant to the next tack.  That tack was to explain about regional
coding and things, which does really take too long.  And then explain
that someone came up with a method to play DVDs anywhere, and that
they're being stomped on for having this idea.

	A typical exchange went something like this:

	"Want a piece of paper?"

	"Sure, what's it about?"

	"Do you know what DVDs are?"

	"Yes, they're that new VCR thing, right?"

	"Yep, kinda.  Did you know that they were encrypted?"

	"No, what's that mean?"

	"It means they've encoded them so only certain players can play
them.  If you buy a DVD in the US for example, it can't be played in,
say, Europe."

	"Oh."

	"Someone 16 year old kid in Norway figured out how it works, and
how to play a DVD anywhere, and he's being sued, and everyone he's
passed the information to is being sued over it."

	"Oh."

	"Yeah, basically, they're stomping on him for having an idea
that they don't want him to have."

	"Oh!"

	The great thing about this is that it builds up the amount of
information the person has reasonably quickly, but can be cut at any
time, and the person is still a little richer.  Sadly, it probably is
too long of a conversation to be useful to have with a passing motorist.

	I'm leary of playing the analogy game.  Bill Gates has played
that game far too often to try to make the monopoly charges against his
company sound ridiculous.

	If anybody has any better ideas for scripts, please tell me.
:-)

Have fun (if at all possible),
-- 
Its name is Public Opinion.  It is held in reverence. It settles everything.
Some think it is the voice of God.  Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet
broke a chain or freed a human soul.     ---Mark Twain
-- Eric Hopper (hopper@omnifarious.mn.org  http://omnifarious.mn.org/~hopper) --

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