Wow... that looks a whole lot simpler than my embargo code where my columns are embargoed. Doh. Here's what I've done:

[% META
  class='lm_columns'
  instance='79'
  title='Building a static website with Template Toolkit (Mar 06)'
  # use Date::Manip; print UnixDate(ParseDateString("4/1/2006 00:00 GM
+T"), "embargo=%s")
  embargo=1143849600
%]
[download]

And yes, that Date::Manip line sets "embargo" according to the execution of that Perl code, which then gets checked by:

    USE date(gmt => 1);
    WRAPPER splash/panel style = splash.style.default;
      IF date.now > template.embargo;
        content;
      ELSE;
        "[Content embargoed until ";
        date.format(template.embargo);
    " per publisher's agreement.]";
      END;
    END;
[download]

I'm gonna be switching to your way soon.