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Menu: Home UP EDITORIALS Another Linux Laptop More Scumbags Join the EFF Java woes Linux Laptop Die, threads! Welfare Whores I bought it, it's mine. MS Trial Verdict Linux Desktop Letter to Bob Robb MS Myths 1-3 Windows? No, KDE! Benchmarketing 101 Benchmarks Galore! Mindcraft Reality Check Open Source Economics FUD 101 Commoditization Markets & Microsoft Don't Cry for Bill Links Contact Info My Resume My Public Key EMAIL Eric BadTux Portal[et]	Spending George's Check According to the IRS, I will be getting a check for $300 back from Uncle Sam within the next week. Now, in my opinion this was an unwise political move by George W. "Shrub", because anybody with any sense knows that if you have extra money you use it to pay your debts (several trillion dollars worth at last count?) or save it for a rainy day (social security trust fund, anybody?), but I wasn't consulted. Now, the question of what to do with this money. I could always go out and buy some new techno-gadget, but that seems to be just as unwise as what George did. So I'm donating it to the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org ), a civil liberties organization which is currently defending a Russian programmer jailed by the Bush administration for the crime of presenting a paper detailing weaknesses in Adobe's e-book encryption. The "official" excuse is that he is charged with copyright violation because of a program that he wrote for his employer, which will crack that encryption. As a software engineer, I find it amazing -- and alarming -- that I could be jailed for a program that I wrote for my employer. If you find it amazing too, I urge you to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation with those ill-gotten gains. That URL is: http://www.eff.org You will note that aside from the Skylarov case, the EFF is involved with many other important cases: Felton vs. MPAA: The MPAA tried to muzzle Dr. Felton using the Digital Millenium Copyright Act when he wanted to present a paper about weaknesses in one of their encryption schemes, claiming that the paper represented a "circumvention technology". Dr. Felton (who was the lead expert witness against Microsoft in the DOJ vs. Microsoft case) fights back against this unconstitutional restriction upon free speech. MPAA vs. 2600 et. al: The MPAA sued a magazine for publishing a decryption algorithm that could decrypt DVD movies. When their pet court (ruled over by a judge who was a former lawyer for the MPAA) ruled that the decryption algorithm could not be published, the magazine then published links to others who had published the algorithm. The MPAA then asked the judge to outlaw even that, and the judge did. Every major news organization in the country has decried this decision, which restricts their free speech right to publish links on the Internet. Again, the EFF is spending millions of dollars on the appeals of the former MPAA lawyer's rulings against free speech on the Internet. etc. etc. etc. If you are concerned about free speech on the Internet, if you are alarmed by the possibility of being jailed for a program you wrote for your employer, I urge you to send George's check to the EFF. That URL, again, is: http://www.eff.org -- Eric Lee Green, EFF member 11242

Eric's Home Page

Spending George's Check

According to the IRS, I will be getting a check for $300 back from Uncle Sam within the next week. Now, in my opinion this was an unwise political move by George W. "Shrub", because anybody with any sense knows that if you have extra money you use it to pay your debts (several trillion dollars worth at last count?) or save it for a rainy day (social security trust fund, anybody?), but I wasn't consulted.

Now, the question of what to do with this money. I could always go out and buy some new techno-gadget, but that seems to be just as unwise as what George did. So I'm donating it to the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org ), a civil liberties organization which is currently defending a Russian programmer jailed by the Bush administration for the crime of presenting a paper detailing weaknesses in Adobe's e-book encryption. The "official" excuse is that he is charged with copyright violation because of a program that he wrote for his employer, which will crack that encryption.

As a software engineer, I find it amazing -- and alarming -- that I could be jailed for a program that I wrote for my employer. If you find it amazing too, I urge you to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation with those ill-gotten gains.

That URL is: http://www.eff.org

You will note that aside from the Skylarov case, the EFF is involved with many other important cases:

Felton vs. MPAA: The MPAA tried to muzzle Dr. Felton using the Digital Millenium Copyright Act when he wanted to present a paper about weaknesses in one of their encryption schemes, claiming that the paper represented a "circumvention technology". Dr. Felton (who was the lead expert witness against Microsoft in the DOJ vs. Microsoft case) fights back against this unconstitutional restriction upon free speech.

MPAA vs. 2600 et. al: The MPAA sued a magazine for publishing a decryption algorithm that could decrypt DVD movies. When their pet court (ruled over by a judge who was a former lawyer for the MPAA) ruled that the decryption algorithm could not be published, the magazine then published links to others who had published the algorithm. The MPAA then asked the judge to outlaw even that, and the judge did. Every major news organization in the country has decried this decision, which restricts their free speech right to publish links on the Internet. Again, the EFF is spending millions of dollars on the appeals of the former MPAA lawyer's rulings against free speech on the Internet.

etc. etc. etc.

If you are concerned about free speech on the Internet, if you are alarmed by the possibility of being jailed for a program you wrote for your employer, I urge you to send George's check to the EFF. That URL, again, is:

http://www.eff.org

-- Eric Lee Green, EFF member 11242

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Spending George's Check