first Skylarov, now Pavlovich

Is that as far as I know, Advogato is located in The State of California

we are all "purposefully availed himself or herself of forum benefits" by using a service operated by a resident of California. (in fact indirectly by the state of california itself, as I understand the server sits on a LAN at UC Berkley.)

Us Canadians always bristle when USA law is applied across the border at us. Here, the Courts are saying that they can apply California law against posibly the entire world.

I wonder if the process servers are alreay flying to Moscow.ru

Apologies for the misspellings in the main article. I hit post instead of preview at the wrong moment. Another thing to add to the 'to fix' list: editing after posting.

I don't think the DMCA law is going to be tolerant towards FS/OS grabbing patented 'thingies'. It's really going to be tough in the future for people to come up with truly innovating ideas.

I don't know, I think I'm seeing cloudy skies ahead.

California has always abused the "full faith and credit" clause of the US Constitution which requires US states to give full weight to the laws of other states. Particularly in tax law, they push well out of their jurisdiction and then point to that clause as requiring other states accept it.

Kind of a business-as-usual thing, I'm afraid.

Geeks run the world

... but that's not an excuse for terrorist action.

When it comes down to it, shutting things down is pointlessly destructive. It will do nothing but alienate people.

"It's down"
"Why?"
"Some Open Source geeks don't like some law"
"Grrr... farking Open Source geeks!"

Instead, take the time to actually make your political representatives (at the local, state, and national levels) aware of your views in as well-spoken a manner as possible. Present good arguments, politely, and ask that they keep your viewpoints in mind as their constituent in any upcoming debates on the matter.

Revolution is all well and good, but it's destructive and makes far more enemies than friends.

... but that's not an excuse for terrorist action. When it comes down to it, shutting things down is pointlessly destructive. It will do nothing but alienate people.

I disagree. The biggest problem we have today is that people do not acknowledge nor understand the issues involved.

"It's down" "Why?" "Some Open Source geeks don't like some law" "Grrr... farking Open Source geeks!"

See, that is exactly why the problem happened.

How about:

"It's down. Says something about freedom being important." "Yeah. They've been publicizing this for weeks. The geeks are pointing out that they feel everyone's rights are being violated." "What do they expect me to do about it?" "Well, take a look at this list...."

Instead, take the time to actually make your political representatives (at the local, state, and national levels) aware of your views in as well-spoken a manner as possible. Present good arguments, politely, and ask that they keep your viewpoints in mind as their constituent in any upcoming debates on the matter.

Revolution is all well and good, but it's destructive and makes far more enemies than friends.

That assumes that the lawmakers are willing to listen, aren't receiving far more money from groups like RIAA, Adobe, etc etc. It's not true, and so long as laws get passed and then the courts uphold them. Technical correctness will not win this battle, it will only prolong the fight, because they know they can continue to get away with misinforming the masses via the media. So long as we remain 'evil hackers', the problem continues.

If we hold a well publicised event, making clear from word one that it is not a 'hack', that it is intended to raise awareness, it can be done.

singing: You can get anything you want, on the Internet (web or not) You can get anything you want, on the Internet (web or not) ....

If one person does it, it's You know, if one person, just one person does it, then they think he's really sick, and they won't take notice. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they think they're both hackers, and they won't take notice of either of 'em. And if three people do it, three, and you imagine three people webmastering in, posting a page, and walking out? They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine 5000 people in a day, i say 5000 people, posting an 'Internet is closed' sign and walking out? And friends, they may think it's a movement....

apologizes to Arlo Guthrie....

"singing: You can get anything you want, on the Internet (web or not) You can get anything you want, on the Internet (web or not) .... "

Oh hotdamn, that's just the way to solve

" When "Open Source" is equated with "make as much material as possible available over the Internet", we have a problem, people"

Taking down websites isn't going to win any friends, it's either going to annoy people, or make them go "Oh, the geeks are whining (again)".

Any you need to lose this "Geeks run the world" complex. Geeks aren't very important at all. If the geeks don't go to work for a day, programs slip by a day. The Boston T and bus drivers don't go to work for a day thousands of people are inconvienced and need to find alternative ways to get to work, quite possibly causing massive conjestion in already crowded Boston streets (I'm guessing that it's pretty much the same in most major cities). Doctors and nurses decide not to go to work for a day - people die. Getting any level of perspective here? Look, I'll do it in bold for you

GEEKS DO NOT RULE THE WORLD

I don't think that "Geeks rule the world" is the point. The point is to raise awareness. If just one person goes to their daily bullet list of websites and notices it has been replaced with a simple message stating they are closed for the day, here's why, and that person is educated about the issue at hand, then it's a good thing and was worth it.

The point isn't to ruin their day, it's to point their eyes at an issue that they otherwise wouldn't have noticed.

I think the idea of a highly visible protest is a good idea, but why not be more peaceful than actively blocking servers?

In the olden days of the Child Online Protection Act(?) and some other lousy US laws, we had the EFF's "Blue Ribbon" campaign (just put a blue ribbon on your web site) and the day admins turned most web sites black.

When everything suddenly has a black background, a blue ribbon, and a link like "Why is this web page black?", people will notice without being annoyed. That's the kind of attention you want to draw to this issue.