[free-sklyarov] The OSCON sleeps on ...

[Jon O .]

Bob La Quey, Alan Cox resigned!

Hello!????

On 24-Jul-2001, Seth David Schoen wrote:
> Bob La Quey writes:
> 
> > San Diego is a beautiful place. Laying around in a first class hotel
> > by the bay, talking techie talk, drinking a cool beer afterward, ...
> > Well I suppose it is easy to see why the OSCON is somnolent. 
> > 
> > In private conversations with key figures in the Open Source Community
> > and from the Free Software Foundation, I find no special concern or 
> > passion for this issue. More a matter of fact, business as usual, let 
> > the EFF do it attitude. Dmitry Sklyarov is in jail and the Free/Open Source
> > software community is taking a "ho hum" attitude. 
> > 
> > Were this just another civil suit I could see that. But given the
> > egregious nature of the action precipitated by Adobe, and carried
> > out by the FBI, with the full sanction (apparently) of the DOJ one
> > must wonder at the laid back attitude. 
> 
> I've never been to OSCON, and I hear it's a good conference, but
> certainly (like a few other conferences) it is pretty expensive and
> most representation there is from businesses.
> 
> In the LUGs around here I hear a _lot_ of concern.  And most of the
> most prominent people in the community have spoken out in public, all
> the way to Alan Cox making a very dramatic statement.  I could give a
> number of other examples of Linux and free software people getting
> involved.  The San Jose event was listed by Rick Moen on the Bay Area
> Linux Events page, and the co-ordinator on site was Don Marti, the
> Vice President of SVLUG (the largest Bay Area LUG and allegedly the
> largest LUG in the world).
> 
> The FSF's _home page_ has a prominent news item about the arrest and
> protests.  And look at the top of Richard M. Stallman's personal home
> page:
> 
>    The EFF has temporarily withdrawn from the protests against the arrest
>    of Russian programmer Dmitri Sklyarov, since Adobe's management has
>    bowed to pressure by agreeing to meet with the EFF. The anti-Adobe
>    protests may be rescheduled later if necessary, but on Monday, July 23
>    there may still be demonstrations in many cities. Look here for the
>    one nearest you. This is still a good opportunity to speak out against
>    the DMCA, and in favor of freedom.
>    Sklyarov is a Russian programmer arrested, on a visit to the US, for
>    developing software that the US government doesn't want you to have.
>    Time was, the USSR imprisoned people for forbidden copying, and
>    American scientists and historians were arrested on absurd pretexts
>    when visiting the USSR. Now the tables have turned.
> 
> It is extraordinary for Stallman to do anything to support a
> proprietary software programmer or a proprietary software program.
> 
> I don't agree with you; I think there's an unprecedented amount of
> concern.  I've attended most Bay Area rallies supported by the local
> free software community (the Great Linux Revolt, Windows Refund
> Day, the MPAA protest, and some others).  Some of those events were
> called for much more convenient times (not during most people's work
> day), with much more notice and much better advance publicity.  Yet
> this event got a turnout comparable to the largest of those events,
> and the presence in other cities was far and away better than Windows
> Refund Day.
> 
> I don't agree that the community isn't extremely concerned.  In
> regular life, we probably wouldn't care for Elcomsoft that much.  But
> this is really serious.  "What do we want?"  "Free Dmitry!"  "When do
> we want it?"  "Yesterday!"
> 
> -- 
> Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Its really terrible when FBI arrested
> Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/ | hacker, who visited USA with peacefull
> down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF) | mission -- to share his knowledge with
>      http://www.freesklyarov.org/      | american nation.  (Ilya V. Vasilyev)
> 
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