Reasonably Logical

Just recieved this in the most recent EFF newsletter. I would say this is *WAY* overdue. I really hope this passes.

* Action Alert - Support the FAIR USE Act!

A critical copyright reform bill has just been introduced
in the House, and we need your help to push it through.
Reps. Rick Boucher and John Doolittle’s FAIR Use Act would
remove some of the entertainment industry’s most draconian
anti-innovation weapons and chip away at the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) broad restrictions on
fair use. Take action now and tell Congress to help restore
balance in copyright now:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=271>

Technology companies play a game of Russian roulette
whenever they create products with both infringing and non-
infringing uses. Current “secondary liability” standards
don’t provide enough certainty, and if innovators guess
wrong, they can be hit with statutory damages as high as
$30,000 per work infringed. When it comes to mass-market
products like the iPod or TiVo, damages could run into the
trillions of dollars — more than enough to bankrupt anyone
from the smallest start-ups to the biggest companies.
Unlike in other areas, the private assets of corporate
officers, directors and investors are not shielded from
liability in copyright cases.

The FAIR USE Act would limit the availability of statutory
damages for secondary liability and allow innovators to
make more reasonable business decisions about manageable
levels of legal risk. Meanwhile, copyright owners could
still get injunctions and actual damages for harm suffered,
putting them in no worse a position than civil litigants in
most other areas.

The bill would also codify the Supreme Court’s “Betamax
doctrine” as it pertains to hardware devices, making clear
that manufacturers cannot be held liable based on the
design of technologies with substantial non-infringing
uses.

Finally, the bill would loosen the grip of the DMCA, which
restricts circumvention of digital rights management (DRM)
restrictions even for lawful uses. The FAIR Use Act adds 12
exemptions, including the ability to circumvent for classic
fair use purposes like news reporting, research,
commentary, and criticism.

Broader DMCA and copyright reform remains absolutely
necessary, but, if passed, this bill would be a big step in
the right direction. Take action to support it now:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=271>

An equal marriage bill was introduced in the Illinois House last week. Cosponsored by Rep. Greg Harris, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, Rep. Constance A. Howard, & Rep. Harry Osterman, the bill would change the definition of marriage to be between any two persons (not closely related by blood) rather than “a man and a woman”. There is a group of people getting together next Tuesday March 6th at 5:30 in the Geneva Room of the McKinley Foundation to hash out what type of action we could take to help the bill pass. Anyone who wants to attend is welcome.

Please RSVP to me (reames@uiuc.edu) if you want pizza (which I will be buying). Feel free to just show up, but if you don’t RSVP I won’t promise there will be enough pizza for you.

5:30 pm, Tuesday, March 6th
Geneva Room
McKinley Church and Foundation
809 S. Fifth St.
Champaign, Il 61820

House Bill 1615:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=1615&GAID=9&SessionID=51&LegID=30427

Equal Marriage Illinois Champaign County - the local equal marriage activism group in Champaign-Urbana which is hosting the meeting
http://www.equalmarriagecc.org/

I just received this interesting article on a news list I’m on. Apparently, the first Marine injured in Iraq - Sgt. Eric Alva - is gay and is now working with HRC to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I was really impressed with his interview responses. They said what needed to be said and said it well. One comment had me laughing, others were quite serious, and the last just made me smile. Way to go Eric!

Defending His Country, but Not Its ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy
Washington Post
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Here’s the press release from SLDN announcing the renewed attempt to repeal DADT. Maybe it’ll get somewhere this time.

Congressman Marty Meehan to Re-Introduce Legislation to Repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
February 22, 2007

Finally, when searching for a link for the article, I ran across this blog which covers the issue in more detail.

This is just a list of good resources I have found regarding LGBT issues in the foster care system. I’m working on a workshop for Creating Change 2007 and gathering information. Figured I might as well share this here.

Legal Translations: LGBT People and the California Foster Care System
By Sarah Colby, LGBTQ Youth Project Attorney
Legal Services for Children, San Francisco
(Article originally published in the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, California)
http://nclrights.org/publications/lgltrnsltnfostercare.htm
- This response focuses on the situation in California and is a few years out of date, but hits many (but not all) of the issues facing LGBT youth in foster care and LGBT adults looking to be foster parents.

Yesterday, I met again with the group planning the information phone line for the GLBT community in Champaign and Urbana. During the course of the meeting, we decided that what we really wanted to focus on was creating the information guide. The medium is very much secondary. Since there is so much liability potentially involved with a phone line, we decided to get a website up and running first. In the process of gathering information for the resource guide, we’re going to be interviewing a number of folks who have been active in the community here for many years. We intend on broadening the scope of this interviews to obtain as much historical information as we can. (Or at least that is my intent.) I’ve already gone ahead and registered the domains we’re going to be using, but nothing is up yet.

The Champaign County LGBTQA Resource Guide will soon be available at: www.CClgbtqaResourceGuide.org

The next meeting is:
Saturday, March 3rd at 2pm
Urbana Public Library in the conference room downstairs (turn right after taking the stairs down)

For every gay bashing that hits the news (well, the gay news), a hundred kids commit suicide rather than deal with the fact they’re gay. What is wrong with our society that we allow things like this?

I’ve seen nothing in the major news about this. Instead, its all focused on Anna Nicole Smith. I am only one who is disgusted?

Update: Funeral arrangements added below
Update (3-1-07): Vigil added below

From a Triangle Foundation mailing:

Andrew Anthos Dies as Result of Hate Attack

Andrew Anthos, the 72-year-old gay Detroit man who was hospitalized after a brutal hate-motivated attack, passed away at approximately 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Feb. 23 as a result of his injuries.

Anthos was attacked on Feb. 13 by a man who followed him home after asking if he was gay while the two were riding a Detroit bus. The Detroit police are continuing their investigation into what is now a homicide.

“This horrific crime is further proof that, gay people are at constant risk of attack and murder,” said Triangle Foundation Executive Director Jeffrey Montgomery, who was at Detroit Receiving Hospital with Anthos’ family. “Our hearts go out to Andrew’s family - they have lost a man they all loved very much because someone else was acting out of hatred and bigotry.”

Anthos, known as “Buddy” by his friends and family, was a patriotic American who loved his country despite the homophobia and bigotry that remains pervasive today. Anthos devoted over twenty years in a campaign to have the dome of the state Capitol building lit red, white and blue one night every year.

Anthos is survived by a loving family including his aunt, Maggie Hloros, and his cousin Athena Fedenis.

“Buddy made friends with everyone he met,” said Fedenis. “He was an enthusiastic Detroiter. His family has lost a loved one, and the city has lost a champion.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has offered to pay Anthos’ funeral expenses at the request of Triangle, Michigan’s leading victims’ services organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Memorial details will be forthcoming.

Funeral arrangements (from a Triangle Foundation mailing):

Funeral Arrangements Set for Andrew Anthos

Andrew “Buddy” Anthos, 72, died Friday evening from injuries suffered in a brutal anti-gay attack. The following arrangements have been made for his funeral:

* Public viewing and visitation from 2 - 9PM on Tuesday, February 27.
* Funeral service will be held at 1PM on Wednesday, February 28.

The viewing and service will be at the Ford Funeral Home, 26560 Van Dyke, Center Line, Michigan 48015; (586) 754-2464

For information regarding the investigation please contact Melissa Pope, Triangle Foundation’s Director of Victim Services at melissa@tri.org or (313) 537-3323 x112.

Vigil (from a Triangle Foundation mailing):

Candlelight Vigil for Andrew Anthos
Friday, March 2nd
6:30 p.m.
Windsor Tower, 1600 Antietam, Detroit, MI 48207

Organized by members of the community.

I received the article quoted below by email and it reminded me of a long running debate I’ve had with myself. When do a parent’s rights to control their parents education override the states right to see that child brought up in a manner that will likely lead him/her to be a successful citizen? I generally tend towards the parent rights side of the argument. The concept of our children being raised under government control is so scary that I’m reluctant to take *any* steps in that direction. Having said that, I feel that parents do not have a right to deny their children access to facts upon which to make their own decisions. Getting back to the article below, if the schools were only mentioning the existence of gay families, I don’t feel the parents have any right to protest at all. If the teachers were arguing that gay families were moral, I might actually be supporting the parents, despite my own beliefs on the issue. Or at the very least, I’d be a lot more torn. Since, to my knowledge they weren’t, the parents have no ground to stand on as far as I’m concerned.

Updated (2-28-07): If anyone knows where I can find an exact copy of this AP article, please let me know. I would rather link to the source than quote it here. I am not interest in reprinting that does not use this exact text. I responded to the text below, so I want to make sure any link is to the text below.

Update (2-26-07): I had someone from Lexington Cares - a group which supports the school systems right to teach diversity - contact me yesterday with regard to the article below. He didn’t provide me with the source for this article, but he did point out that their website has quite a few similar news links.

Judge tosses lawsuit over talk of same-sex marriage in classroom

A federal judge in Boston Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by parents who wanted to keep their children from learning about same-sex marriage in school.

U.S. district judge Mark Wolf said federal courts have decided in other cases that parents’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs are not violated when their children are exposed to contrary ideas.

The case attracted attention in part because Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.

”In essence under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy,” Wolf said in his ruling.

Toni and David Parker of Lexington, Mass., sued after their 5-year-old son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. Another Lexington couple joined the suit after a second-grade teacher read the class a fairy tale about two princes falling in love.

Both couples claimed Lexington school officials violated their parental rights to teach their own morals to their children and said they have religious beliefs that homosexuality is immoral. They said they did not want to dictate curriculum but wanted to be notified before gay couples were discussed so they could remove their children from classrooms.

”It boils down to this simple thing: The parents have a fundamental right to be the primary directors of their children’s upbringing and moral education,” David Parker said Friday.

Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for the parents, said they would appeal the ruling to the first U.S. circuit court of appeals and refile the claims in state court.

John Davis, an attorney for the school officials, said the books did not focus on sex education but merely depicted various families, including those headed by same-sex couples.

Forty-five states ban same-sex marriage, most of them through voter-approved amendments. New Jersey, Vermont, and Connecticut offer civil unions, which offer the protections and benefits of marriage without the title, and California offers domestic partnerships with similar benefits.The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which supported the school officials, praised the ruling

”This is not a case about teaching about homosexuality. This is a case where Lexington sought to teach about diversity and about having respect,” said Sarah Wunsch, ACLU staff attorney. (Denise Lavoie, AP)

I just ran across these two great articles (one & two) on states that are providing electronic access to their state legislation information. I just wonder why all state and the federal governments aren’t doing the same. I mean, isn’t it all public information? We’re paying for it all aren’t we? Shouldn’t that mean we get easy access to it?

I would love to be able to subscribe to a service that provided updates on the bills I care about. If there was database access available, I have to believe someone (not necessarily the government) would provide one. I’m sure special interest groups would love to be able to write easy scripts to compile voting records on bills they care about. There are hundreds of interesting uses this information can and should be put to.

I believe a government has a fundamental responsibility to provide its citizens with full and complete free information about its workings.

Is it just me or is China’s effort to restrict internet access both ridiculous and doomed to failure? If they have internet access at all, people are going to get around any restrictions they might place. As for trying to prevent minors from accessing the internet, why?! Secondly, how the hell are you going to manage it? (See article below.)

Despite a Ban, Chinese Youth Navigate to Internet Cafes
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 9, 2007; A01

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