Vitanuova for 2001 June 6

Yay!

The EFF has announced Professor Felten's lawsuit against the RIAA!

Here's the Complaint (Felten et al. v. Recording Industry Assn. of America et al., filed today in D.N.J.).

That was very exciting. I attended the press conference and was at EFF all morning, watching news articles come out (some of them by reporters who had asked questions during the conference).

In the evening, I went to the SVLUG meeting with Biella, and stood up to announce the lawsuit on behalf of EFF, also asking people to join and contribute money. When I said "This morning, in the District of New Jersey, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed the first-ever lawsuit affirmatively challenging the constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act", everyone in the room broke into cheers. And a few dozen people took copies of the press release and membership forms.

The speaker was Jon Callas, and his topic was the DMCA and computer security, so it was extremely good timing. (Callas didn't know about the lawsuit, and the EFF didn't know about his talk. But there was a huge amount of overlap; he gave a lecture about how the DMCA harms security research.)

So things relating to the lawsuit took up the vast majority of my day, and I can't say I was at all unhappy about that. It's great to see this see the light of day, and I have vast confidence in the excellent legal team EFF has pulled together for this case.

In the afternoon, I got a demo of a fine cutlery set, which I can't afford to buy, but which is very well-made.

Speaking of the RIAA

from the in-the-second-century-of-the-Christian-era-the-Empire-of-Rome-comprehended-the-fairest-part-of-the-earth-and-the-most-civilized-portion-of-mankind-and-then-they-invented-Napster dept.

As Americans we have seen many industries and the jobs they create move off shore. We have so far managed to replace these jobs with new and better jobs, particularly in technology. We have moved from a society based on brawn power to brain power. To survive and prosper we must be able to make money from this brain power. If creativity is easily stolen and doesn't have to be paid for, our brain-based businesses will die and our society will go the way of the Romans. They were technology advanced and lost to the barbarian hordes. Don't think it can't happen again. Napster is only the tip of the iceberg. It's the mentality that sees nothing wrong with the theft of intellectual property that will sink many a Titanic.

(Miles Copeland)