[lug] Press Draft

J. Paul Reed preed at sigkill.com
Fri Nov 5 13:44:24 MST 1999


On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Wayde Allen wrote:

> Hmmm ... I'm not too certain what to say about this activity.  The
> main thing is that whoever chooses to do it better be darn sure that
> it stays friendly and doesn't break any laws.  

This is a big thing, for everyone going, and something that happened at
one of the Fry/SVLUG events; I believe it was the release of Win98. They
were handing out CDs, and Fry's got pissed, and the police were called.

The police politely asked SVLUG to move off the private-property parking
lot, SVLUG complied, and all was happy again. SVLUG told Fry's they
could've just asked without calling the po-po; the attitude needs to be
the same here.

> If it gets too confrontational this could back fire in the sense that
> you would just be confirming the claims that the Linux community is
> nothing more than an over zealous bunch of hacker fanatics.

You've never been to a Silicon Valley LUG meeting, have you?

> What concerns me most is the possibility of giving the established
> LUG's negative press.  I'm not saying you will, but you are walking a
> little bit of a narrow line here, and I personally can't say I
> understand all of the legal and social ramifications.  Please be VERY
> careful ...!

Indeed. Whenever you're doing something like this, whether it be with
Linux or something else, you have to be very careful.

Unless we're being belligerent or not complying with police instructions,
there really aren't any legal ramifications to worry about.

As for the social ones, a "(counter)-demonstration" is walking a very fine
line; the tone of this event should be one of mockery, really;
lighthearted, and good natured on our end. 

This serves a number of purposes: it doesn't put anyone (i.e. media, those
attending) on the defensive, it makes the story from a media standpoint
much more fun and easy to tell, and a helluva lot more interesting to Joe
Schmoe, and more importantly, and will piss MS off way more than if you
come in with guns blazing (proverbially, of course).

Later,
Paul
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  J. Paul Reed                  preed at sigkill.com || www.sigkill.com/preed
  Never underestimate the power of denial. -- Ricky Fitts, American Beauty






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