Next meeting: Thursday the 17th of May
Hi everyone, Please join me this Thursday (the 17th) to talk about: - DRM in cinema [1] - How can we be more involved with LibrePlanet [2]? - FOSS-friendly employers, both in terms of IT companies and others (e.g. how do you get the print shop you work at to start using FOSS?) As usual, we will meet for two hours in the training room at VPAC from 6pm. Building 91 110 Victoria Street Carlton South (map [1]) We'll head out for dinner after the meeting, to Classic Curry on Elizabeth St. If you would rather go somewhere else that's fine, but please reply to this email; don't leave it until the meeting :) See you then, Alex [1] http://astortheatreblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/what-happened-last-night/ [2] http://libreplanet.org/ [3] http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/
On Sunday 13 May 2012 18:54:23 Alex Fraser wrote:
We'll head out for dinner after the meeting, to Classic Curry on Elizabeth St. If you would rather go somewhere else that's fine, but please reply to this email; don't leave it until the meeting :)
I can't hang around after the meeting I'm afraid, but happy to meet people beforehand for a bite to eat. I think Big Mama's (the Korean restaurant) around the corner is open around 5pm - any takers ? cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On 16 May 2012 22:09, Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> wrote:
I can't hang around after the meeting I'm afraid, but happy to meet people beforehand for a bite to eat. I think Big Mama's (the Korean restaurant) around the corner is open around 5pm - any takers ?
I am interested. I will have to leave the meeting at 8pm, on the dot. -- Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au>
Hi guys, I'd like to come tonight but expect I can't make it till a bit after 6 due to meeting a friend visiting from out-of-town. Is there a phone-number for the training room I can call at the VPAC entrance if so, and what's the #? I rather doubt mobile reception will work inside that room. Sorry to be a bother. cheers, Pat S. On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 6:54 PM, Alex Fraser <alex@phatcore.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,
Please join me this Thursday (the 17th) to talk about:
- DRM in cinema [1] - How can we be more involved with LibrePlanet [2]? - FOSS-friendly employers, both in terms of IT companies and others (e.g. how do you get the print shop you work at to start using FOSS?)
As usual, we will meet for two hours in the training room at VPAC from 6pm.
Building 91 110 Victoria Street Carlton South (map [1])
We'll head out for dinner after the meeting, to Classic Curry on Elizabeth St. If you would rather go somewhere else that's fine, but please reply to this email; don't leave it until the meeting :)
See you then, Alex
[1] http://astortheatreblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/what-happened-last-night/ [2] http://libreplanet.org/ [3] http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ _______________________________________________ Free-software-melb mailing list Free-software-melb@lists.softwarefreedom.com.au http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb
Patrick Sunter <patdevelop@gmail.com> writes:
Is there a phone-number for the training room I can call at the VPAC entrance if so, and what's the #? I rather doubt mobile reception will work inside that room.
There should be a sign with a number to call if you turn up late. (It didn't work last month, but Alex is now aware of that and has hopefully made a working arrangement this month.) -- \ “I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I | `\ like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” —Bilbo | _o__) Baggins | Ben Finney
Hi everyone, I can't make it tonight but will try to come again to the next one (I was the woman at the last meeting that doesn't know much about computers :). In the meantime, there were a couple of you that expressed interest in the project I'm working on (free and open software for food distribution systems). Perhaps email me separately (kirsten@eaterprises.com.au) if you're interested in a bit more info Cheers - have fun Kirsten On 17 May 2012 16:33, Ben Finney <ben+freesoftware@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
Patrick Sunter <patdevelop@gmail.com> writes:
Is there a phone-number for the training room I can call at the VPAC entrance if so, and what's the #? I rather doubt mobile reception will work inside that room.
There should be a sign with a number to call if you turn up late. (It didn't work last month, but Alex is now aware of that and has hopefully made a working arrangement this month.)
-- \ “I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I | `\ like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” —Bilbo | _o__) Baggins | Ben Finney
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Hi all, Here are the minutes from the last meeting. Sorry for the delay! On 13 May 2012 18:54, Alex Fraser <alex@phatcore.com> wrote:
- DRM in cinema [1] - How can we be more involved with LibrePlanet [2]? - FOSS-friendly employers, both in terms of IT companies and others (e.g. how do you get the print shop you work at to start using FOSS?)
[1] http://astortheatreblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/what-happened-last-night/ [2] http://libreplanet.org/
== 1. DRM in cinema == The Astor blog post on the topic was good, but it wasn't explicitly anti-DRM. That's probably because the audience of their blog is their customers, and it's no good complaining to them. We decided to contact The Astor to discuss their problems with DRM. Some ideas: - Invite them to one of our meetings - Invite them to an interview on Byte Into It with Ben Finney on RRR (Wed nights, 7:00-8:00pm). Note: RRR has 10k+ subscribers. Further discussion: - We could also contact politicians about this specific problem, e.g. the Greens may be sympathetic. - Archival problem example for movies: Doomsday Book: archived on Laserdisc; no players any more. - What does this mean for movies in general? Australian movies probably need to be stored at the National Film and Sound Archive; presumably they would require DRM-free copies. - Media lockdown opposed to culture; see questioncopyright.org (Nina Paley) - Money is being made even though media can be copied; see "The Sky is Rising" at TechDirt. == 2. LibrePlanet == The question was asked, what is our connection with LibrePlanet? - What can they do for us, or vice-versa? - Who is our contact there? - Can we participate in free software events that others host around the world (e.g. by video conference)? -> Maybe; e.g. VPAC has good facilities for this, but would need to check bandwidth use policy. == 3. Free software-friendly employers == Some people have good luck with this: - At Adam's work you can build your own system. Everyone else uses Apple computers, but it's not mandatory. ... however, there are compatibility problems when trying to connect to the company's AirPort device. Company is generally free software-friendly, and promotes anti-DRM stance. - David: Free OS on workstation, but Windows VM for MS Office. Produces free software with non-free plugins. - Chris: Supercomputers for life science run free OS, but have a non-free cluster filesystem. High-performance computing community generally supports software freedom. - Ben F: Asked for, and got, a licence under the GPL for software written for employer. - Alex: Contributing to GPL code (Blender) at work. Hurdle: Aust Govt. refuses free software on basis of lack of public liability insurance. However: - Aust Govt. policy on open source software effective Mar 2011 puts FOSS on equal footing with proprietary software. - OpenLogic (and maybe others) provide indemnity for use of FOSS in a corporate environment. Interesting development: Twitter has a draft employee patent agreement [1]: won't use patents except defensively; otherwise, employee may licence own patent to party being sued. Agreement appears to follow patents should they be sold, through an "encumberance". Further discussion: - How compromising one should be on FOSS and patent matters when negotiating an employment contract? - Analogies with GMO and gene patents: life is naturally easy to reproduce and propagate; aggressive litigation on assumption of illegitimate copies. == Action items == AF to contact Astor re: interview on RRR. Next meeting: 21 June. [1] http://blog.twitter.com/2012/04/introducing-innovators-patent-agreement.html
participants (6)
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Alex Fraser -
Ben Finney -
Brian May -
Chris Samuel -
Kirsten Larsen -
Patrick Sunter