LXNY General Meeting:

Tuesday 1 May 2001

The MPAA vs. 2600 case
and
the conspiracy to overturn the First and Fourth Amendments

LXNY will have a general meeting Tuesday 1 May 2001.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

In particular, all members of the Linux Society, FBUNY, NYLUG, LUNY!, AnyNIX, the Brooklyn Bunch, the Upstate Alliance, and all other Free Software Groups are welcome!

The meeting starts at 6:30 pm and runs until 9:00 pm.
Enter the IBM building, 590 Madison Avenue, on the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue and ask at the front desk for the room number.

At exactly 9:00 pm many members will repair to our traditional place of refreshment.

This meeting will be a general discussion and organizational meeting.

On Tuesday 1 May 2001, at 10:00 am, in the Federal Court at 40 Centre Street, in Foley Square on the Island of the Manahattoes, the argument of the appeal in the MPAA vs. 2600 case will be heard.

This case is, along with the many yet to be filed cases dealing with mass spying on home users, the most central of United States cases dealing with the preservation of fundamental freedoms now under attack by a conspiracy of cartoon and software and hardware vendors, oligarchs of Tin Pan Alley, and the secret police of several large dictatorships.

2600 will hold a press conference immediately after the oral argument, likely about noon.

Here is a quote from

   Cindy Cohn, EFF Legal Director
   cindy@eff.org   
   +1 415-505-7621

   New York - In a case involving free speech rights and fair use of DVDs,
   the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the appeal of 2600 Magazine in
   Universal v. Remeirdes at 10:00 a.m. on May 1, 2001. The hearing will be
   held in Courtroom 506 of the United States Courthouse at 40 Centre Street
   (at Foley Square) in Manhattan, New York City.

   Dean Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law School will argue the case on
   behalf of the magazine. 2600 Magazine will hold a short press conference
   immediately after the hearing in Foley Square Plaza, directly across from
   the courthouse.

   The case arises from 2600 Magazine's publication of and linking to a
   computer program called DeCSS in November, 1999 as part of its news
   coverage about DVD decryption software. DeCSS decrypts movies on DVDs
   that have been encrypted by a computer program called CSS. Decryption of
   DVD movies is necessary in order to make fair use of the movies as well
   as to play DVD movies on computers running the Linux operating system,
   among other uses.

   Universal Studios, along with other members of the Motion Picture
   Association of America, filed suit against the magazine in January 2000
   seeking an order that the magazine no longer publish the program.

   The Studios object to the publication of DeCSS because they claim that it
   can be used as part of a process to infringe copyrights on DVD movies.

   In the case, formally titled Universal v. Remeirdes, et. al., the
   District Court granted a preliminary injunction against publication of
   DeCSS on January 20, 2000. By August 2000, after an abbreviated trial,
   the Court prohibited 2600 Magazine from even linking to DeCSS.

   2600 has appealed the trial court's ruling.

   http://eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20010319_ny_eff_appeal_reply_brief.html

    More information about this case is available on the EFF website at:

                   http://eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases