[sklyarov-chicago] Chicago Monday Recap

[Peter A. Peterson II]

Ok, here's the recap from Chicago in Monday. (I realize it's late now,
but just so you know.)

Monday morning, people arrived downtown at the plaza by the Dirksen
federal building between 11:00 and 11:30. Between 20 and 25 people 
filtered in, including one guy who was at Grant Park in 1968 and 
one high-school freshman! (http://www.aaronsw.com/) We didn't chant, 
or march, but instead focused on hitting all the high traffic areas on
the block with signs and posters. Within an hour and a half, we had
passed out around 1,000 copies of the JPEG poster I made, some with
press releases on the back, some with cards with representative's
addresses, etc. on them, some with both. Good collaborative work from
the chicago list people; almost everyone brought copies of the poster,
and we had zero attention from the CPD (Gno Gnus is Good Gnus).

Towards the end of the alloted time we were running out of posters so
someone ran and printed up 250 more, of which we probably passed out
half before it was time to go.

All in all, we got a good reaction from the crowd. I had several
extended conversations with people regarding the situation, and many
people were genuinely concerned. We felt that most of the people we knew
did not even know the DMCA existed; and so we felt that education and
presence were more important that "raising hell" about an issue that
nobody knew about. (Wheras this was totally appropriate in San Jose.)

We did not get any press coverage, other than a lone photographer, which 
was a disappointment. I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm sure that part
of it was that the concurrent protest at the Italian consulate regarding 
Genoa -- I know there were crews there.

Pictures are here: http://two-bit.ufo.chicago.il.us/~pictures/

I gave some of them useful names. If anyone wants to use any of them,
let me know and I'll make sure it's cool with the photographers.

Regardless, we felt good about it, and many people are willing to do a
second round -- I think we'll even get a better response now that Adobe
has called for his release. sklyarov-chicago is still getting a few
submissions a day, and a couple totally unconnected individuals have
emailed their support to us. Also, regarding a second round, we'll have
a lot more time to prepare, and that's good. We really liked having the
jpeg on one side and info on the back, but originally, I didn't even
have a URL on the poster, much less local contact info. I'm going to
edit that up before I leave town tomorrow, so that people who want to
add information will be welcome to do so -- it felt right to give out
legislator's information wiht the posters -- in fact, it killed me that
I didn't think to do that ahead of time.

At this point it doesn't matter whether Adobe did that just to "wash
their hands" -- in the proverbial "court of public opinion," this will
put pressure back on the federal government for holding and potentially
trying a political prisoner that *nobody* wants imprisoned. We are not
going to focus on boycotting adobe, but again on releasing Dmitry and
getting the DMCA repealed. 

I can't guarantee that we are going to be on for next monday, but that
information will unfold as today and tomorrow roll along.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Chicago and around the world, as
well as to the EFF for their work in the lawyer pit of the legal arena.

Free Dmitry,

pedro

-- 
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   FREE DMITRY SKLYAROV -- FBI has imprisioned a Russian software 
   engineer for promoting and teaching the concept of "fair use".
Read more: http://www.eff.org/alerts/20010719_eff_sklyarov_alert.html