March 20th, 2018 IRC Meeting

Projects

Video Newsletter

• Planning for next video.
• Videos of the November candidate workshop have been uploaded
• Equifax video has been uploaded

2018 Elections

Trainings:

1. Videos

Digital Right of Repair

Details.

Computer Donations

https://piratenpad.de/p/MassPiratesComputerDonations

Yearly Conference

Once we set dates for the trainings we will put up a poll asking about our 2018 conference and whether to change it into several regional conferences.

The electronic election for our officers went well in 2017, and we should consider doing it again. Such a change would allow us to decentralize our yearly conference and hold multiple regional conferences in different parts of the state. We could schedule monthly conferences starting in March or April. We could limit them to about 4-5 hours long, with the first half being training and the second half being discussion. If we want to go this route, we should ask our members soon and see who wants to organize their regional conference.

Statements In Process

• MA Bill H.3641: An Act relative to electronic tolling - Approved our opposition to it. Past position is to remove the tolls on the Pike since it has long been paid for.
• US S.1241 - Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017 - Approved our opposition to S.1241. Need statement (Joe)

Other To Dos

FOSS Tutorials

Worcester farm group is interested in having some FOSS tutorials. Perhaps:

• how to do basic labels in GIMP,
• work through a few sample spreadsheets related to seed cost and
• similarly applicable real-world situations, depending on the needs of the group

Basically how to do graph design & product management with open source tools. Malt will put together a one paragraph description of what we need and we can mail it out to ask pirates to help.

Tech/Outreach

• Review regular IRC meeting day. Poll sent to email list - Sent (jokeefe)
• email Loomio invite to supporters (jokeefe)
• set up torrents for PirateCon videos (creynolds)
• post remaining audio for PirateCon talks (srevilak)
• finish setup of myBB (jokeefe)
• install mattermost as slack alternative (jokeefe)

Mayfirst is looking at setting up a Discourse instance we could use.

Upcoming Events

• 3/24, 2:00pm to 4:00pm, Mass Mesh Meeting, Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave Somerville
• 3/24-25, 9am-5:30pm, MassAlliance Grassroots Campaign Training, Worcester
• 3/24-25, LibrePlanet 2017, MIT, Cambridge
• 3/28, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
• 3/?, ?pm, Democracy/IT meeting. Email info@masspirates.org for the location

Participants

• jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
• Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell

Observers

• ChanServ
• hvxgr

Summary

Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act

Looks like Congress will soon pass the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which will not fight sex trafficking, but will give the copyright monopolists an in to censor the net.

Working to roll it back (ala the Mass. tech tax repeal) will likely be a possible way forward:

1. write op-eds
2. find tech sites to speak out against it
3. keep track of how effective it is at actually fighting sex trafficking
4. lobby congress for a roll back
5. stop any attempts to expand it to other areas

Other resources:

• https://readwrite.com/2013/09/27/massachusetts-tech-tax-repealed/
• https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/techflash/2013/08/the-new-sales-tax-on-computer-and.html

Video Newsletter

• Uploaded the videos
• Will update their info and post them
• Will send a link to Joe’s recording for review

Minutes

 


[9:06pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/March_20th,_2018_IRC_Meeting
[9:06pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:06pm] malt joined the chat room.
[9:06pm] malt: Sam Capradae, Worcester
[9:06pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:06pm] malt: (family couldn't make it this week)
[9:06pm] jokeefe: ahoy malt, glad you could make it
[9:06pm] malt: hiiiiii
[9:06pm] Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:07pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/March_20th,_2018_IRC_Meeting
[9:07pm] Joe: Ahoy Malt!
[9:07pm] malt: howdy pappy!
[9:07pm] Joe: lol
[9:07pm] jokeefe: I am still getting over my 2 week cold and Joe needs to gets some sleep so aim is to keep it short if we can
[9:08pm] jokeefe: Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act
[9:08pm] jokeefe: looks like it will be adopted
[9:09pm] malt:
[9:09pm] jokeefe: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180227/15314039324/doj-tells-congress-sesta-fosta-will-make-it-more-difficult-to-catch-traffickers-house-votes-it-anyway.shtml
[9:09pm] Joe: I don't know much about this one so I will follow your advice on this one.
[9:10pm] malt: it strips a pretty vital "neutral provider" protection from websites
[9:10pm] malt: making them liable for the content posted
[9:10pm] malt: iirc
[9:11pm] jokeefe: as long as it relates to sex trafficking, widely defined
[9:11pm] Joe left the chat room. (Quit: https://webchat.pirateirc.net/)
[9:11pm] Joe joined the chat room.
[9:12pm] Joe: Sorry, doing this from my phone so it seems I cannot look anything up.
[9:13pm] jokeefe: Besides a last ditch attempt to oppose it.
[9:14pm] malt: it's a real hot button topic and it's got some decent hollywood buzz behind it
[9:14pm] jokeefe: Trying to think of other actions going forward
[9:14pm] jokeefe: an opening for more of their attempts to censor the net
[9:16pm] jokeefe: ideas?
[9:17pm] malt: frankly, i don't know what we could even do
[9:18pm] Joe: Do you think this will actually pass?
[9:18pm] malt: it seems likely
[9:18pm] jokeefe: 94 to 2 for cloture in the Senate
[9:20pm] Joe: We will have to focus on it like other acts that pass.
[9:20pm] jokeefe: Or the calls to expand it
[9:20pm] malt: that's a huge groundswell
[9:21pm] Joe: such as tmaybe we can focus on the judges to get it called unconstitutional
[9:22pm] Joe: I will have to read more about it asap.
[9:23pm] malt: if there was more time it might be possible to make the case to tech groups
[9:24pm] malt: but i think a lot of them are lobbying for this as it'll impose a huge cost on new services
[9:25pm] jokeefe: Reminded of the call to tax tech services and how that was rolled back
[9:26pm] jokeefe: once there was an outpouring of anger
[9:27pm] malt: i'm not seeing a lot of anger
[9:27pm] jokeefe: and examples of people harmed by it
[9:27pm] malt: there was some twitter noise a few weeks ago but i think it's cooled
[9:29pm] jokeefe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/09/27/patrick-signs-tech-tax-repeal/Wi7aN9yY83hMl5ukoaL9kL/story.html
[9:30pm] jokeefe: https://readwrite.com/2013/09/27/massachusetts-tech-tax-repealed/
[9:31pm] jokeefe: https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/techflash/2013/08/the-new-sales-tax-on-computer-and.html
[9:31pm] jokeefe: 1. write op-eds
[9:32pm] malt: if there's anything we could do, maybe reach out to anti-trafficking groups trying to open discussions on the flaws of the legislation?
[9:32pm] jokeefe: 2. find tech sites to speak out against it
[9:32pm] jokeefe: 3. keep track of how effective it is at actually fighting sex trafficking
[9:32pm] malt: true
[9:32pm] jokeefe: 4. lobby congress for a roll back
[9:33pm] jokeefe: 5. stop any attempts to expand it to other areas
[9:34pm] Joe: Solid plan
[9:34pm] jokeefe: For the sake of time.
[9:34pm] jokeefe: ...
[9:34pm] jokeefe: I uploaded the videos
[9:35pm] jokeefe: Will update their info and post them
[9:35pm] jokeefe: Will send a link to Joe’s recording for review
[9:35pm] jokeefe: there is a mesh net meeting on Saturday, 2-4pm
[9:35pm] Joe: ok. I will try to get the email out asap to
[9:36pm] Joe: *to
[9:36pm] Joe: too
[9:36pm] Joe: lol.....
[9:36pm] jokeefe: we have some time with this new one
[9:37pm] Joe: true, ty for being so understanding
[9:38pm] malt: you got your hands full!
[9:38pm] Joe: Yeah, but it is worth it.
[9:38pm] Joe: We have a baby pirate now!
[9:39pm] jokeefe: argh!
[9:40pm] jokeefe: Anything else to add?
[9:40pm] Joe: nay
[9:41pm] malt: nope
[9:41pm] malt: oh
[9:41pm] malt: may 11 city hall invited me to a pun contest
[9:41pm] malt: and april 5th i'm competing in an NEPR story slam
[9:42pm] malt: but that's just personal
[9:42pm] jokeefe: good luck
[9:42pm] jokeefe: shall we adjourn then?
[9:42pm] malt: 2nded
[9:42pm] Joe: aye
[9:42pm] jokeefe: aye
[9:43pm] Joe: good night gentlemen
[9:43pm] jokeefe: good night. thanks