Town Meeting by Schumer and Weiner
Sunday October 28th, 4:30PM - 5:30PM
Cunningham Junior High School(IS 234)
1875 East 17th Street
Between ave R and S
Brooklyn, NY

New York Linux Users have supported a number of important political agenda's in the local and national arenas. Members of LXNY, NYLUG, and NYFAIRUSE, have particularly been involved in legal and political issues surrounding free software.

The New York Linux Scene would encourage anyone who has benefited from Free Software, which is nearly everyone, to join in the political causes that fight efforts which threaten Linux's survival.

Currently, New Yorkers for Fairuse is fighting hard everyday to roll back the worst of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. They protest every Monday in front of the NY Public Library on 5th Avenue and 42nd street, and the canvas local neighborhoods with good old fashion door knocking, buttons and petitions.

The Linux Scene has also protested at the DeCSS trail in lower Manhattan in the Summer of 2000, with the help of NYLUG and Hackers around the US who were in town for a convention, when young teen Jon Johansen was arrested in Norway for the crime of watching a DVD on Linux.

Often people question why Linux users need to be politcally active. To answer this question, one has to understand that the advent of Free Software and Linux is not an accident, or a technical achievement, but primarily a political activity. Linux is a political repsonse to various problems which inhibited the liberal use of computers that people built and owned. I recommend reading many of the works at the Free Software Foundation, Copyright and the Public Trust by Richard Stallman, and Ten Reasons why politics is essential for the Linux User by Ruben Safir.