Lots of talk of a "code of conduct" going in, as I pieced it together later, with dribs and drabs on the organizer's list, which I've been on. We had some last minute plea for some small print boilerplate, like a EULA, that no one reads, until getting a Knock on the Door from Microsoft...
Of relevance to education is my Hillsboro police story again. Here was this bunch of cops, in the age of Napster, being pushed by the IP lawyers to play "the bad ass enforcer" in the local public schools. They were to come in and scare the bejeezus out of kids telling them about the anti-piracy laws, possible jail sentences. Yet here this was, land of the free home of the brave, with parents who'd risked everything to come here for a better life for their kids, and here were these cops not telling them anything about free, legally free, and open software, not letting them in on the "dirty secret" (from the IP lawyers' view) that a lot of this so-called IP was relatively worthless, next to the joys of ownership of one's own free pile of code, which one could even help write and build community through doing (just like the lawyers did). So the police rebelled and created their own Linux lab to teach open source, hiring me 'n Collord to serve as instructors. The upshot: teens do not care to venture into a police station for just about any reason, especially not recent emigres with relatives already in trouble with the law. So the classes had problems with outreach. Really, this was something the teachers should have been doing as a part of their professional duties, but we all know America's teachers tend to be cringing and cowardly, not likely to champion civil rights or anything noble (e.g GNU). Or have times changed when we weren't looking? I guess they may have, as Saturday Academy was plenty bold enough, in screening parts of 'Revolution OS' and all the rest of it. Stallman keeps coming back to Portland (Hillsboro is our neighbor, an Intel HQS). OSCON is here for a reason. We know how to share and build community, while those IP lawyers gain a reputation around the world for being ugly and litigious, anything but a pleasure doing business with. Kirby
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