Salon coverage of the chilling events at Interz0ne this weekend.

] Two researchers at a computer security conference are
] served cease-and-desist orders moments before they're
] scheduled to speak.

] Instead of the scheduled discussion, several hundred
] conference attendees were read the cease-and-desist
] letter, said Scott Milliken, an attendee. Attendees
] said they saw the case as a clear infringement on the
] First Amendment rights of the two students, and they
] contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
] Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who
] specializes in copyright issues, seeking advice on
] what to do next.

] "We're concerned right off the bat when we hear of
] speakers at a conference being served with a [temporary
] restraining order] moments before they're supposed to
] speak," said Wendy Seltzer, an attorney at the EFF.
] "It's the kind of thing that makes us nervous."

] One attendee at the conference -- an engineer who goes
] by the name "Decius" -- said that after the
] cease-and-desist letter was read to the group, "a few
] of us got up and decided that the best thing that we
] could do was to make as many people aware of what
] happened as possible. In addition to contacting the
] press, several individuals said they wished to contact
] universities using the system to say they were unhappy
] to hear it was not secure and were unhappy to hear that
] the company was behaving in this manner."
]
] Decius added: "We live in a society in which we are
] increasingly dependent on this high-tech infrastructure
] which our lives are arranged around, and if we can't take
] these things apart and understand how they work, then I
] think we have a very serious threat to our freedom."

Salon.com | The copyright cops strike again