This Tuesday it’s time again to meet for CopyNight! Join us for this fun social gathering co-hosted by Florida Free Culture about copyright, art, technology and much more. Tentative topics include the new Adobe DRM, who is trying to sue TurnItIn and all the tangents we can think of. You’ll find us on the back porch, just enter through the front and go straight.

What: CopyNight Gainesville
When: Tuesday, March 25t 2008 at 7pm
Where: Tim and Terry’s (1417 NW 1st Ave.)

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Tomorrow night is our February general meeting. At 6pm we’ll be showing the documentary Steal This Film, Part II. It covers the technological and cultural aspects of the copyright wars, and the implications of the internet for copying. Come out to Little Hall and participate in freely distributed media with us!

When: Monday Feb. 11, 6:00pm
Where: Little Hall, rm. 239

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To commemorate World IP Day, the theme of which for 2007 is “Encouraging Creativity,” this month’s CopyNight meeting will convene to discuss the subject: “Encouraging Creativity: Are We?”.

Since IP Day is “celebrated” on April 26, and CopyNight falls on April 25, it seemed an apt topic for the evening. And since April 25 is also the last day of classes for the semester, I look forward to a rollicking discussion. Pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and cut loose with a critical look at our modern intellectual property regime.

Save the date:

• What: CopyNight Gainesville: “Encouraging Creativity: Are We?”
• When: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 7 pm
• Where: Tim and Terry's (1417 NW 1st Ave.)

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We had elections for officers for the fall 2007 semester at our meeting on Monday. Our officers are:

• John Nile Li - President
• Jan Hendrik Grahl - Vice-President
• Mark Sisley - Treasurer
• Patrick Flanagan - Secretary
• Cain Norris - Public Relations Director

Congratulations to all our officers and a huge thanks to everyone who ran! Next semester will be awesome for Florida Free Culture.

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Update: The game doesn’t start until 9:21 pm! That’s plenty of time to come to our awesome meeting beforehand! Go Gators

Our meeting Monday will be our last general meeting for the academic year. The meeting will take place at 6:30 pm on Monday, April 2 in the Johnson Lounge, Reitz Union room 121. Refreshments will be served.

We will have elections for our officers for the 2007-08 school year. All offices will be up for elections (i.e. President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Public Relations Director). Any student who has been to two meetings this year is eligible to vote. Similarly, anyone who’s been to two meetings this year is eligible to run for office (assuming you’re in good standing with the university). This meeting will count toward that requirement, so if you’ve been to a previous meeting this year, you’ll be eligible to vote and/or to run for office. If you have any questions, we’ll discuss them at the meeting.

After the elections, we’ll have a talk on Net neutrality by Dr. Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay, a professor in UF’s department of Decision and Information Sciences. Dr. Bandyopadhyay is the author of a recent study that concluded that abandoning Net neutrality would discourage ISPs from improving service.

For a summary of the research, see this UF news story. For more information on Net neutrality, visit SaveTheInternet.com. (FreeCulture.org is a member of the Save the Internet Coalition.)

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Professor Shubho Bandyopadhyay will be discussing his research on net neutrality. Using game theory models, he counter-intuitively found that broadband providers would be more likely to improve Internet service if they were barred from charging for preferential treatment.

His talk will be at 6:30pm on Monday, April 2nd in the Reitz Union room 121 (Johnson Lounge). For more information about the research, see the story from UF’s news site. For more on net neutrality, see SaveTheInternet.com.

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A reminder: CopyNight Gainesville for March has been moved to Thursday, March 29. Join us at 7 pm at Tim and Terry’s (1417 NW 1^st Ave.) for a lively and convivial discussion.

One subject we’ll be discussing is the future of Alachua Freenet. As previously mentioned, AFN is discontinuing its free dial-up Internet service for the community, which has resulted in a lot of soul-searching and hand-wringing. We’re offering this month’s CopyNight as a forum to share opinions and discuss our vision for connectivity in the community.

Afterwards, you can head downtown to the Kid Koala show at Common Grounds (210 SW 2^nd Ave.). Doors open at 9 pm; tickets are $10. Put a little remix culture in your life thanks to this renowned turntablist.

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