Tuesday in N.Y.: DeCSS hearing, LXNY meeting

From Jay Sulzberger, the corresponding secretary of LXNY: On Tuesday, 1 May, 2001, at 10:00 a.m., in the Federal Court at 40 Centre
Street,
in Foley Square on the Island of the Manahattoes, the argument of the
appeal in the MPAA vs. 2600 case will be heard.

This case is, along with the many yet to be filed cases dealing with
mass
spying on home users, the most central of United States cases dealing
with
the preservation of fundamental freedoms now under attack by a
conspiracy
of cartoon and software and hardware vendors, oligarchs of Tin Pan
Alley,
and the secret police of several large dictatorships.

2600 will hold a press conference immediately after the oral argument,
likely about noon.

See below for further information.

Also on Tuesday, 1 May, 2001, LXNY will have a general meeting.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

The meeting runs from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. After the meeting, full and
precise instructions on how to get to our traditional place of
refreshment
will be given in clear.

Thanks to support of the IBM Corporation, the meeting is at their
building
at 590 Madison Avenue at East 57th Street on the Island of Manhattan.
Enter the building at the corner of Madison and 57th and ask at the
desk
for the floor and room number.

This meeting will be a general discussion and organizational meeting.

Here is a quote from http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20010426_eff_appeal_pr.html
.

Contact: Cindy Cohn, EFF Legal Director
cindy@eff.org
+1 415-505-7621

New York — In a case involving free speech rights and fair use of
DVDs,
the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the appeal of 2600
Magazine in
Universal v. Remeirdes at 10:00 a.m. on May 1, 2001. The hearing
will be
held in Courtroom 506 of the United States Courthouse at 40 Centre
Street
(at Foley Square) in Manhattan, New York City.

Dean Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law School will argue the case on
behalf of the magazine. 2600 Magazine will hold a short press
conference
immediately after the hearing in Foley Square Plaza, directly across
from
the courthouse.

The case arises from 2600 Magazine’s publication of and linking to a
computer program called DeCSS in November, 1999 as part of its news
coverage about DVD decryption software. DeCSS decrypts movies on
DVDs
that have been encrypted by a computer program called CSS.
Decryption of
DVD movies is necessary in order to make fair use of the movies as
well
as to play DVD movies on computers running the Linux operating
system,
among other uses.

Universal Studios, along with other members of the Motion Picture
Association of America, filed suit against the magazine in January
2000
seeking an order that the magazine no longer publish the program.

The Studios object to the publication of DeCSS because they claim
that it
can be used as part of a process to infringe copyrights on DVD
movies.

In the case, formally titled Universal v. Remeirdes, et. al., the
District Court granted a preliminary injunction against publication
of
DeCSS on January 20, 2000. By August 2000, after an abbreviated
trial,
the Court prohibited 2600 Magazine from even linking to DeCSS.

2600 has appealed the trial court’s ruling.

The EFF/2600 brief: http://eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20010319_ny_eff_appeal_reply_brief.html.

More information about this case is available on the EFF website
at: http://eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases.

Resources:
http://www.eff.org
http://cryptome.org/cryptout.htm#DVD-DeCSS
http://www.2600.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/30/technology/30CYBERLAW.html
http://www10.nytimes.com/2001/04/06/technology/06CYBERLAW.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/27/technology/27CYBERLAW.html
http://www.sciam.com/2001/0301issue/0301cyber.html
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/04/03/2244234.shtml

Upcoming events for LXNY:

There will be an Install Fest within the next few weeks. We will have
a
decent net connection and many helpers, so if you are new to free
operating
systems, now is a good time to assemble your hardware. The best way to
install any OS new to you is with people right there who are able and
willing to help.

The GNUbies will meet, though we do not yet know where. http://www.gnubies.org.

The last Refund Day was a success. The next will carry the battle into
the
courts. If you are considering buying an IBM style “personal computer”
from a large vendor who does not offer a choice of operating systems,
and
you would like to help in the fight for fair dealing in the mass market
for
peecees, come to the 1 May 2001 LXNY meeting.

Jay Sulzberger
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York’s Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org