The GNU-Darwin Distribution is taking a stand against what Apple has done, and we have blackened our website so that people will take notice. http://www.gnu-darwin.org/ MacNN is also running a story about it, and it is interesting that Apple has sometimes used the DMCA to threaten them as well. http://www.macnn.com/news/24175 There are some discussion threads about it, although most messages are still in the queue and not yet visible. http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=6042 Here is a link to the original post. http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=367147 Regards, proclus http://www.gnu-darwin.org/ On 12 Apr, R. A. Hettinga wrote:

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To: nettime From: kevin lahoda Subject: <nettime> PlayFair > Sarovar Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 14:51:11 -0400 Sender: nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net Reply-To: kevin lahoda

Sarovar.org is India's first portal to host projects under Free/Open source licenses. It is located in Trivandrum, India and hosted at Asianet data center. Sarovar.org is customised, installed and maintained by Linuxense as part of their community services and sponsored by River Valley Technologies.

From Sarovar's < http://sarovar.org/ > Latest News: "After a short "vacation" thanks to a Cease and Desist letter from Apple, we're back online. Many thanks to Sarovar for hosting us.. -PlayFair "

Sarovar now hosts The PlayFair project < http://playfair.sarovar.org/ > which SourceForge has declined in order to avoid tangling with Apple's decision to go DMCA on their ass < http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/09/1554203 >. Like something from a Gibson novel, I wouldn't doubt if Sarovar rises to meet more than another of these occasions in the near future.

And so, we have more contentious open source code hosted outside of the US in order to circumvent unfavorable legal processes.

Offtshoring in itself is not all that new (another example: < http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/honeyd/ >). Here is how this one gets interesting: A big guy - Apple, goes a little sour, another (kind of) big guy - SourceForge, takes the easy route, and then an offshore repository stands in.

With all of this, one thing that should not be ignored is that SourceForge should be shamed for not holding itself stronger. In a way SourceForge's decline of PlayFair and non-usage of the Safe Harbor Provision Act < http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/ > is an admit of defeat and a failure to stand up for one's (community's) rights.

What comes out of this?

Well, maybe Apple wins because they avoid a chance of being tarnished. Imagine what consumer level acknowledgment of the reality of Apple marketing a clean yet gritty 'Garage Band' motif (with all that punk rock implies) while at the same time sleeping with DRM, recently RIAA, and now DMCA, could entail... One can easily see that Apple is dancing itself into a bit of a gamble. But then again, what does an Ipod zombie care about these acronyms anyway?

What does SourceForge get? Not much. This only makes it easier for them to weasle out of the next situation that comes up. Not to mention they also missed a good chance to join PlayFair in telling Apple what's what.

k

http://sarovar.org/ http://sarovar.org/projects/playfair/ http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/09/1554203 http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/ http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/honeyd/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/09/playfair_dmca_takedown/

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