[JornadaFreeSoft-Info] Hola / What the hack

Tue May 24 17:18:49 CEST 2005

Hola a tothom, 

A veure com ho administrem...

De moment un petit missatge sobre la possible no
celebració del What the Hack
http://www.whatthehack.org/

Preguen en fem difussió així que...

Abraçades,

Yann
.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Announce-whatthehack] Emergency
WTH-newsflash: mayor wants
to ban	What The Hack !
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 08:52:40 +0200
From: Rop Gonggrijp <rop at gonggri.jp>
To: announce at whatthehack.org

(You can help. Read on for details)

We still find it hard to believe, but we have to
accept the fact that 
it
is true. The mayor of Boxtel, the municipality under
which the location
for 'What The Hack' resides, seems to be refusing a
permit for our
gathering, citing "grave fear that the organisation of
this event will
endanger law and order as well as public safety".

Previous instances of this event have seen no
incidents of any kind. We
feel this matter needs public attention to get
resolved, and we issued 
a
press statement today.

The letter (dutch):
http://www.whatthehack.org/news/boxtelbrief

A fairly literal (and by no means legally approved)
translation would 
say:

    Dear Sir, Madam,

    I have received word that you intend to organize
an event "What The
    Hack" from July 28th 2005 through July 31st 2005
on Landgoed Velder
    in Liempde.

    In order to organize such an event, you will need
to obtain a 
permit
    ex art. 2.2.2. of Boxtel local ordinance 2004.

    In light of the fact that there is grave fear that
this event will
    endanger law and order as well as public safety,
I, in my capacity
    as an authorized official,  am herewith informing
you that I will
    not issue such a permit.

    A copy of this letter will be sent to the owners
of the Landgoed
    Velder estate.

    I assume that I have sufficiently informed you.

    Yours truly,

    MAYOR OF BOXTEL,
    J.A.M. van Homelen

We have since mobilised our legal team and
communicated with the
municipality some more. The entire exchange can be
found here, and will
be updated as more communication happens.

We're preparing to take this matter to court, and we
have strong 
reasons
to believe this will not stand.

What you can do

We issued press releases in english, dutch and german.
Maybe you have
means at your disposal to get this matter some
attention. Please 
forward
the message to any and all journalists you know, both
at the corporate
and at the alternative media. Put it on your weblog.
Talk about it on
online forums. If you happen to live or work in
Boxtel, talk to people
and make sure they understand we're good people and
that their mayor
seems uninformed. Make sure people understand what we
are and aren't 
all
about.

Keep watching this space for news: things should be
moving at a fairly
high pace for the next few days and weeks.

What you probably shouldn't do

Please remember that for now we assume this is all
somehow a big
mistake, and if anything, we want to charm the local
community of
Boxtel. We currently do not believe we have an actual
disagreement. We
believe instead that the mayor does not understand
what kind of event
What The Hack is. We do not want to be seen as radical
or pushy. Maybe
it's an oldfashioned or conservative notion, but we
simply feel our
community has a right to gather peacefully.

Getting angry or even vindictive towards the mayor,
the municipality or
anyone else is always counter-productive.

Refunds

Have no fear: What The Hack will happen. Now what
comes next hurts to
say, but we'd rather say the unspeakable before anyone
else does:

Feel secure in the knowledge that in the extremely
unlikely event that

   1. we will not be allowed to gather near Boxtel
   2. we cannot find another location

all ticket fees paid to us will be refunded in full.
Period.

In fact: this is your chance to show that it takes
more than 
misinformed
public servants to scare you. Buy your ticket today!

Smile

Perhaps most importantly: Don't let all of this get
you down: a good
mood and a sense of humor have always been powerful weapons.

______________________________________________ 
Renovamos el Correo Yahoo! 
Nuevos servicios, más seguridad 
http://correo.yahoo.es