Re-sending message, the mail server doesn't like html :(
It has come to my attention that the Wikimedia Foundation through its "Office
actions" policy removed and oversighted the signing keys for Texas Instruments
calculators under a DMCA takedown notice on October 7, 2009. Cary Bass then oversighted
all revisions that had the signing keys. Let me just say it might not be necessary to
continue to block the signing keys. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has reported that
they warned Texas Instruments about the DMCA notices as noted, "the DMCA explicitly
allows reverse engineering to create interoperable custom software like the programs the
hobbyists are using." [1]. Further Texas Instruments failed to respond to the letter
and the deadline, so the bloggers who put up the codes put them back up. [2] Also a
student at a university who posted the keys to his own personal page at the university
filed a DMCA 512 counternotice. With all of this is mind, as since the keys are still up
today, could we please remove the Office action and allow the keys to be posted, and
un-oversight all the revisions so we could end all this vandalism and controversy on-wiki?
It would be a good step to tell Texas Instruments that this is just a "Baseless Legal
Threat". Also, if it's not lifted, could the Foundation explain why isn't
removing the Office action? If we do allow the keys on Wikipedia, I pretty much think the
EFF would support us all the way.
Thanks,
Techman224
Links:
[1]
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/10/13
[2]
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/texas-instruments-stop-digging-holes