"Freedom to Tinker" is the freedom to understand, repair, and improve the technological devices you own. This freedom, which has been eroded by recent changes in markets and the law, is the organizing principle behind an increasing political and legal awareness among technologists. In this talk Professor Felten will outline the ideas behind the freedom to tinker movement, using examples drawn from the current battles over copy protection.

Edward Felten is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Secure Internet Programming Laboratory at Princeton University. In 2000, Felten and a team of researchers successfully completed a challenge from the music industry to break their new digital watermark technology. Professor Felten then challenged the constitutionality of provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that would prevent him from publishing his research.

Most recently Professor Felten has been researching security and privacy related technologies, including studying the effects of proposed copy-protection technologies.

For additional information see Prof. Felten's website: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com

A pre-meeting dinner with the speaker is held at 6 p.m. at the Rusty Scupper on Alexander Road in Princeton. If you would like to attend, please RSVP with an e-mail to princetonacm@acm.org.

Princeton ACM / IEEE Computer Society meeting are open to the public. Students and their parents are welcome. There is no admission charge, and refreshments are served.