From russell at flora.ca  Tue Jun  3 08:59:28 2008
From: russell at flora.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: Tue Jun  3 08:59:30 2008
Subject: [discuss] Twitter and Pidgin -- and the Canadian DMCA
Message-ID: <48454030.4000007@flora.ca>


   I've been evangelized at that Twitter is a useful organizing tool. 
Given the latest rumour is that the Canadian DMCA will be tabled 
tomorrow, I wanted to get this set up.

http://twitter.com/russellmcormond

   I don't expect that I'm going to go to the site often, but thought it 
would work great if it sent my IM client a message when I received a 
tweet.  It claims under devices to have the ability to do that.  I put 
my IM address in there (russellmcormond is also my account at gmail.com 
), and then it told me to send an IM to twitter@twitter.com with a 
specific passphrase.

   I did that, and nothing happens.  I am getting new tweets from people 
I am following (and turned "device updates" on for), and nothing.

   I'm using Pidgin as my IM client for my GMAIL IM account.  I don't 
expect that matters, but I thought I would mention it.

   Has anyone got this working?



By the way, please follow (not necessarily on Twitter ;-) what is 
happening with the Canadian DMCA.  Please get in very close touch with 
your MP or any other MP you might have any type of influence over.  If 
you want a policy focus for your discussion, take a look at the CLUE 
policy summary http://cluecan.ca/policy/copyright

Which has the following as the primary Copyright related concerns:

     * We disagree with the legalization or legal projection of 
techniques used by copyright holders to encode their content such that 
it can only be accessed with "authorized" technology brands.
     * We disagree with the legalization or legal protection of 
techniques used by device manufacturers to lock down devices such that 
their owners are considered attackers, where owners are not able to 
control the technology or make their own software choices.
     * We disagree with government promotion or mandating of 
royalty-based business models over fixed-cost based models used in peer 
production and peer distribution such as FLOSS.


   We expect that given this is expected to be modelled after the USA 
DMCA that it will contain the first two problems, but we don't expect 
much on compulsory licensing.



Note: If you have questions about this policy document and what it is 
focused on, please just ask.   I've also recently participated in a 
forum where I've tried to explain the device ownership and software 
choice issue -- reading that may be helpful to clarify the issue as well.

http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=31&t=000697



-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"
From russell at flora.ca  Tue Jun  3 09:52:58 2008
From: russell at flora.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: Tue Jun  3 09:53:06 2008
Subject: [discuss] [Fwd: Media Advisory: Canadian Software Innovation
	Alliance]
Message-ID: <48454CBA.7070801@flora.ca>


   Other Canadian FLOSS businesses should be heavily involved as well! 
If you weren't yet aware of the CSIA, please get in contact with them!


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Media Advisory: Canadian Software Innovation Alliance
Date: 	Tue, 3 Jun 2008 09:34:54 -0400
From: 	Canadian Software Innovation Alliance
To: 	<info  at softwareinnovation.ca>



For Immediate Release

Open Source Group Weighs in on Copyright
Canadian Software Innovation Alliance highlights need for careful
copyright reform

Ottawa, June 3, 2008

A new coalition of Canadian software businesses and supporters is
concerned about how reforms to Canadian copyright laws might affect the
open source business model. The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance
(CSIA) represents over 20 businesses that specialize in open source
software.  In response to rumors of a new copyright bill set to hit the
House of Commons before the summer recess, the CSIA today announced the
public release of their White Paper.  The CSIA has provided the White
Paper to Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Jos?e
Verner in an open letter jointly addressed to the two Ministers.

The CSIA is particularly concerned about potential changes to copyright
law, such as making it illegal to tamper with technological protection
measures (TPMs), the 'digital locks' - when it is the intentional theft
of copyrighted material that should be illegal. In everyday language the
proposed legislation is similar to making the use and ownership of
screw-drivers  and pliers illegal because they can  be used to commit
crimes such as burglary.  Similar laws in other countries, such as the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States, have caused
problems for consumers and businesses alike. "[T]he history of these
laws in other countries demonstrates that they are ineffective at
protecting content and pose a barrier to competition and innovation,"
says Bob Young, CSIA member.  Mr. Young is CEO of Lulu.com, and a
founder and former CEO and director of Red Hat, Inc.  "The effect of
these laws is to prevent legitimate use by law-abiding businesses and
citizens."

Open source software is an alternative to the conventional software
business model in which developers freely distribute the source code to
their creations. This allows others to freely use, examine, modify and
distribute the software. Open source software is used by over half
(52.7%) of public institutions and over a third (37.3%) of large
businesses in Canada, as well as powering the majority of the world's
internet servers. Open source consumer software includes freely
available products such as the Firefox web browser, the OpenOffice
productivity suite, and the Linux operating system.

About the Canadian Software Innovation Alliance

The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance (CSIA) is a coalition of
businesses and professionals that develop, maintain and depend on open
source software. CSIA advocates public policy and law reforms that will
foster innovation and fair competition in the Canadian software
industry, promote Canada's competitiveness internationally, and uphold
the rights of Canadian software users.

CSIA's website, which includes both the letter to the Ministers and the
whitepaper, can be found at www.softwareinnovation.ca
<http://www.softwareinnovation.ca>.

# # #

To review the Canadian Software Innovation Alliance White Paper, see:
http://www.softwareinnovation.ca/index.php/csia-white-paper/

For more information, contact:

Bob Young
CEO
Lulu, Inc.

c/o Canadian Software Innovation Alliance
Tel: 613-562-5800 x.2589

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"
From psema4 at gmail.com  Fri Jun  6 18:06:11 2008
From: psema4 at gmail.com (Scott Elcomb)
Date: Fri Jun  6 18:06:19 2008
Subject: [discuss] Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards;
	Canadian / Local Projects
Message-ID: <99a6c38f0806061506if5dea6i4f950f90ecc85821@mail.gmail.com>

Hi, all

Looks like the 2008 Community Choice Awards race has begun.  The
following links are projects that I know to be Canadian... Please feel
free to add more links (PLEASE) and/or vote!

Disclaimer: I "run" one of these projects (Atomic OS).  Rather than
ask for your support in this vote, I want to get this thread started
to try and capture/list as many CANADIAN SourceForge projects as
possible.  Of course you're free to vote (or not) for whichever
project you wish.  ;-)


-- Mizu-Bu; Rapid Development Architecture --

Summary: [WIP!] Mizu-Bu is a 'Rapid Development Architecture' which
provides a platform to build entire programs on. It uses an internal
webserver, SQL server, logging, i18n, skinning and multi-user support.
You can download Mizu-Bu RDA and just "get to work"

Vote: https://sourceforge.net/awards/cca/?group_id=171504


-- Atomic OS --

Summary: Atomic OS is a responsive Web 2.0 operating environment &
development platform. Based on AJAX techniques, it emulates/provides
standard operating system features including a command-line shell,
interpreter, filesystem, database access and GUI services.

Vote: https://sourceforge.net/awards/cca/?group_id=172188



-- 
 Scott Elcomb
 http://www.psema4.com/
From russell at flora.ca  Sat Jun  7 10:20:54 2008
From: russell at flora.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: Sat Jun  7 10:20:52 2008
Subject: [discuss] Microsoft Leads Tech Lobbying Pack
Message-ID: <484A9946.2060906@flora.ca>


   Something to think about as we are trying to get our message to 
politicians.   What we lack in money (especially since FLOSS vendors put 
money into the US but not Canada), we can make up with numbers if the 
FLOSS community steps up.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Government/Microsoft-Leads-Tech-Lobbying-Pack/

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"