[I've already asked a few relevant individuals about this, but am opening it up to the list at their suggestion.]
I've recently been in touch with somebody (a lawyer and professor concerned with government open source policy) who is interested in sponsoring a Debian conference here in Washington, DC, next spring, in conjunction with an international conference on open source in government. I understand that there has been historical opposition to holding events in this country, due in large part to our lovely political climate. While I can certainly sympathize -- I'm no fan of the DMCA and its ilk either -- I would like to offer some counterarguments: * Although I am unfortunately in no position to guarantee anyone's safety, I would estimate the risk of being arrested for DMCA violations or the like as extremely low unless you've managed to offend somebody important; the government really has better things to do, especially given the potential bad PR. * Quite a few of us already live in the US, and find the lack of local conferences rather inconvenient. * As mentioned, we have an enthusiastic sponsor lined up, which is a definite plus. What are other developers' feelings on the matter these days? -- Aaron M. Ucko, KB1CJC (amu at alum.mit.edu, ucko at debian.org) Finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NOT a valid e-mail address) for more info.
