[OS:N:] Open Source in Schools and then some

[Steven Christenson <smchris visi com>]

open-source-now-list-request redhat com wrote:

> The DMCA is just the begginning. The CBDTPA lives on, and we need to
> speak up about it.
>
> I have submitted to this
> http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm?comments=1
>
> and recieved a response already. I have also hand written, as well as
> emailed, several different politicians. But I think we should take it up a
> notch, and start a rally. What we need is more media coverage, more

No doubt about that.  Republicans have oil and Enron, the democrats have Time/Warner.  Both my Minnesota democrat senators replied with a cookie cutter response about the crucial importance of preserving copyright (with no indication that I wrote them about the collateral damage a "solution" like the CDBTPA would spawn).  The senior one gets a significant fraction of his PAC money from Hollywood even though we are 1500 miles away so I am sure Feingold tells him what to think in these areas.  The DMCA passed 99-0 if I remember and I have no doubt the CDBTPA would pass overwhelmingly today  --  even though the Association for Computing Machinery wrote Senator Hollings that it would virtually illegalize computer science research (and linux) in the United States.

That's pretty much the congress we have -- service the bribe money and let God sort out the consequences.  The solution is high-visibility, wide publication of how stupid the CDBTPA is so congress is shamed out of passing it.  Not that easy, perhaps, when major benefactors would be Time/Warner/AOL, Paramount (as in network), Fox (as in network), Disney, and, indirectly, Microsoft (as in NBC) --  ;)