PC Magazine columnist Michael J. Miller writes that the movie industry’s arguements are troubling> “My biggest concern is the contention that the act prevents even the discussion of how to decrypt the code. Excuse me? That seems like a huge infringement on our First Amendment rights. Discussing how some form of encryption works seems a fair topic to me, and I sure don’t want the government telling me I can’t discuss it. I’m also worried about the contention that 2600 shouldn’t even be able to point to the code if it’s on someone else’s site.”

“Call them Linux Libertarians. This subculture of hackerdom is less about guns than it is about an elaborate philosophy of a faction of freedom-loving geeks with an acute distrust for authority. To understand them is to understand the popularity of Linux, an operating system that spawned out of the insurgent ‘free software’ movement.” The Boston Globe reports.

Record companies are learning from Web-based services such as Napster, but is it too little, too late? PC World investigates.

Eric S. Raymond takes exception to the DVDCCA’s brief: “We in the open source movement respect copyright; in fact, we use
copyright law to underpin the licenses that define the social contract
of our community. The basis of Matthew Pavlovich’s work, and of our
community’s opposition to the DVDCCA lawsuit, lies in that social
contract; a belief, founded in both engineering pragmatics and ethical
conviction, in the *voluntary* sharing of program source code and the
*voluntary* renunciation of secrecy.” ESR’s statement is posted at LWN.net.

From a column by James Turner of the Christian Science Monitor: For $49 a year, you can purchase your friends and family memberships in Ask Dr. Tech (www.askdrtech.com). This service provides unlimited 24-hour telephone tech support for the Windows software platforms (including Windows 2000) as well as the Office suite of tools and hardware support for many major manufacturers. According to a representative at the show, Linux support will be added soon.

ComputerWorld interviews Red Hat founder and chairman Bob Young about the company’s financial wherewithal to back key initiatives announced at LinuxWorld.

Caldera Systems’ proposed acquisition of SCO’s server and services business may not help the company remain competitive against strong Linux competitors, said analysts. While executives were explaining their plans to merge Unix and Linux last week, Caldera’s quarterly results raised concerns about the company’s future, reported ComputerWorld.

IDG looks at how several tech stocks, including VA Linux and Caldera, acted more like bricks-and-mortar stocks last week.
(Full disclosure: VA Linux owns NewsForge.)

eWeek columnist John Taschek takes issue with 2600.com’s assertion in the DeCSS case that code is free speech.

Some “bug hunters” who uncover security flaws in computer software and rush to issue public warnings may be helping hackers more than consumers, industry officials worry, reported The Associated Press.