February 2011 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Forum now available via Gmane gateway
by Ben Finney 15 Dec '11

15 Dec '11

Howdy all, This forum is now available via the Gmane gateway <URL:http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.foss.melbourne>. As described at that page, this allows the forum to be accessed via many methods in addition to the mailing list, such as NNTP (which is how I'm now posting this message), a weblog-style interface, and syndication feeds. I have given Ben Sturmfels instructions for how to make the past messages of this forum appear as postings in Gmane; hopefully he can find the time to do that. -- \ “If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the | `\ precipitate.” —Steven Wright | _o__) | Ben Finney

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This week's patents and copyright news
by Alex Fraser 23 Feb '11

23 Feb '11

Hi all, A couple of things in the news that might be of interest: A nice description of one aspect of the problem with patents: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/02440113126/chinese-researcher-po… If anyone will be in Canberra on the 4th of March, you could go to a forum on copyright reform: http://www.lawfont.com/2011/01/25/australian-digital-alliance-to-hold-a-for… But I'm not sure what outputs the forum will have. Registrations close this Friday. Cheers, Alex

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Government
by Alex Fraser 17 Feb '11

17 Feb '11

Hi all, As discussed in the meeting today, the Government has a new, friendly policy concerning free software: http://www.katelundy.com.au/2011/02/03/welcome-news-for-open-source/ http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/guide-to-open-source-software/index.… Cheers, Alex

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Trans-Pacific Partnership
by Ben Finney 16 Feb '11

16 Feb '11

Howdy guys, At the January 2011 meeting, I talked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Here is the information for the group. Short version: It's pretty bad. We need to lobby government to stop this. There's hope that other nations seem partially aware of the problems. The Trans-Pacific Partnership <URL:http://www.ustr.gov/tpp> is a plan currently being effected by the USA's Office of the United States Trade Representative. […] a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement with the objective of shaping a high-standard, broad-based regional pact. […] The first round of negotiations took place from March 15-19 in Melbourne, Australia. The second round of negotiations took place from June 14-18 in San Francisco, California. USTR is currently conducting an unprecedented fifty-state domestic outreach strategy for TPP. Read about our outreach events and updates on our TPP outreach page. Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has been discussing the leaked internals of this secretive international pact. Industry is asking the US government for a number of TRIPS plus, WCT plus and ACTA plus provisions: - To seek the highest possible IP protection from TPP negotiating parties. - To built upon existing FTAs and use the US/Korea Free Trade Agreement as a baseline. Although the letter does not specifically mention the May 10, 2007 compromise that included important public health flexibilities in the US/Peru FTA, US Industry is clearly demanding the US government to reject the compromise as the basis for negotiations. - To go beyond the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). For instance, it states that the TPP should outlaw camcording in theaters, despite the fact that the ACTA made it optional for countries to have criminal penalties for camcording. <URL:http://keionline.org/node/1034> Public Knowledge reminds us that this is “ACTA the sequel”. While a text may not have been drafted yet, content owners are doing their bit to ensure that the TPP would contain IP provisions that aggressively protect their interests at the expense of the rest of ours. A paper prepared by the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP (reported to be drafted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Motion Picture Association of America) and leaked on the Internet, indicates that rights holders are urging the USTR to include in TPP IP protections more extensive than those present in ACTA. Specifically, the paper suggests that the following issues be addressed in TPP: * Temporary copies: [cached or intermediate copies within a computer] * Circumvention of digital locks: [harsher DRM enforcement] * Copyright terms: The paper urges the TPP to provide for longer copyright terms. * Statutory damages: [ignore putative damages suffered by plaintiff; instead, calculate damages as multiple of nominal fee for use] The coalition suggests many other worrisome provisions such as requiring ISPs to act as copyright cops and treating individual infringers with the same severity as large-scale pirates. <URL:http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/acta-sequel-transpacific-partnershi…> The above article at Public Knowledge also discusses a leaked document within the NZ government, which shows a good awareness of the issues raised by the TPP in light of similar regimes and their effects on economies and freedom. -- \ “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you | `\ have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither | _o__) on your side, pound the table.” —anonymous | Ben Finney <ben(a)benfinney.id.au>

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Next discussion group Thu 17 Jan
by Ben Sturmfels 13 Feb '11

13 Feb '11

Hi Folks, Our next discussion group is on Thursday 6:30pm at the State Library. Meet in the foyer a little before. Look forward to seeing you there! Proposed agenda: - Freeing music players with Rock Box - The GNU Privacy Guard, and how it brings trust to the free software community If you already have a GPG key, print out a few copies of its fingerprint so others can sign your key. You can export this with: gpg --fingerprint [your email or key ID] Regards, Ben

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Support a firm, simple declaration against ACTA
by Ben Finney 12 Feb '11

12 Feb '11

Howdy all, The Free Software Foundation is seeking signatories to a “firm, simple declaration against ACTA” which they intend to use to show the USTR office that there is strong public opposition both in the USA and other affected countries. <URL:http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta/acta-declaration> -- \ “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do | `\ so too.” —Voltaire, _Essay On Tolerance_ | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Re: [free-software-melb] Next discussion group Thu 17 Feb
by Llew Thomas 12 Feb '11

12 Feb '11

Unless you have developed a free and open source time machine Ben, I suspect you intended to say "Thu 17 Feb", so I have edited the subject to that effect. :-) I have never seen the Rock Box project before, but it has totally made my day. I am hoping to attend the next meeting, looking forward to it! Llew On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 1:58 PM, Ben Sturmfels <ben(a)stumbles.id.au> wrote: > Hi Folks, > > Our next discussion group is on Thursday 6:30pm at the State Library. > Meet in the foyer a little before. Look forward to seeing you there! > > Proposed agenda: > > - Freeing music players with Rock Box > > - The GNU Privacy Guard, and how it brings trust to the free software > community > > If you already have a GPG key, print out a few copies of its fingerprint > so others can sign your key. You can export this with: > gpg --fingerprint [your email or key ID] > > Regards, > Ben > > > _______________________________________________ > Free-software-melb mailing list > Free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb >

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