News from PANUG/BizNix - January 16, 2003
http://panug.org - http://biznix.org


PANUG MEETING TONIGHT

Tonight is PANUG's monthly meeting. The meeting starts
at 6:15 pm with a Question & Answer session. The main
presentation will be the Mac OS X operating system and
applications. If you have Apple experience, come on down
to the meeting and help answer questions.

Those who have joined PANUG or BizNix can claim their
attractive PANUG/BizNix coffee cups at tonight's meeting.


ELDRIDGE DECISION

Mark Wills points out the following Slashdot article
that has implications for copyrights and intellectual
property:

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/01/15/1528253.shtml?tid=123

Ed Sawicki mentions that the Eldridge Decision is being
descussed right now on a book publishers/authors mailing
list that he's on. A lawyer for the industry claims that
possession of intellectual property (ip) is essential for
gaining and holding on to wealth in America today. This
decision certainly benefits those that possess ip at 
the expense of those that don't - ordinary consumers of
ip.

Ed says "It's interesting that many authors of books about
Open Source software think the court ruling is wrong - that
copyright law should be reversed to reduce the amount of
time that works should be protected. Authors of books on
conventional, commercial software haven't said this,
presumably because, in their worlds, the protection of ip
is more important than the greater good for society. The
bottom line is that this decision is good news for big
money and bad news for most citizens."