March 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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Next FSIG meeting: Thursday 17 March
by Alex Fraser 20 Mar '11

20 Mar '11

Hi all, Next Thursday is the 3rd Thursday of the month, and as usual, we will meet State Library at 6:30pm. If this will be your first meeting, try to arrive a few minutes early so you can find us in the foyer. Agenda: - Australia's upcoming copyright reform[1][2] - perhaps we should have some input into it? ... So that's a fairly short list. Feel free to add to it by replying :) Would anybody like to meet beforehand (5:30) for dinner? See you then, Alex [1] http://delimiter.com.au/2011/02/28/attorney-general-reveals-copyright-revie… [2] http://www.lawfont.com/2011/03/01/building-the-case-for-fair-use-in-austral…

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TTPA IP proposals and Australia, plus Secret Australian Piracy Report Revealed and Debunked
by Chris Samuel 17 Mar '11

17 Mar '11

First, on the TTPA front here's Kim Weatherall's take on the now leaked US IP proposals and their affect on Australia should they go through: http://www.lawfont.com/2011/03/16/more-on-the-tppa-ip-proposal-aarrgghh-eve… Includes patent evergreening (no requirement for an extension to involve an improvement) and copyright term extensions to 95 years from publication. Secondly, the "new" anti-piracy report that the Australian govt, newspapers and IP folks have been touting, but nobody had seen (not even the journalists who were writing about it) turns out to just be a rehash of the fatally flawed "Building a Digital Economy" report that went around in the EU recently. http://torrentfreak.com/secret-australian-piracy-report-revealed-and-debunk… Amongst the howlers is the attestation that a doubling in bandwidth means a doubling in piracy.. -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC

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