New York Times: Article on Dmitri Sklyarov DMCA arrest

Warren Togami warren at togami.com
Wed Aug 1 01:45:49 PDT 2001


Excellent piece from the New York Times on the DMCA and loss of freedom in
America.  Can't blame foreign programmers like Alan Cox (Linux development
second in command) for boycotting USA developer conferences fearing for his
own safety from arrest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/opinion/30LESS.html?ex=997510756&ei=1&en=2
039852b8d9f2448
(free registration required)

"Dmitri Sklyarov is a Russian programmer who, until recently, lived and
worked in Moscow. He wrote a program that was legal in Russia, and in most
of the world, a program his employer, ElcomSoft, then sold on the Internet.
Adobe Corporation bought a copy and complained to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation that the program violated American law and that, by the way,
Mr. Sklyarov was about to give a lecture in Las Vegas describing the
weaknesses in Adobe's electronic book software. Two weeks ago, the F.B.I.
arrested Mr. Sklyarov. He still sits in a Las Vegas jail."

... without bail... or even a bail hearing
... no phone call

"In April, for example, Edward Felten, a Princeton professor and encryption
researcher, received a letter from recording industry lawyers warning him
that a paper he was about to present at a conference - it described the
weaknesses of an encryption system - could subject him to enforcement
actions under the D.M.C.A.. Mr. Felten understood the threat and decided not
to present his paper. Largely as a result of this experience, he is now the
lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
on First Amendment grounds."

... fortunately this is the grounds for the EFF's upcoming court challenge
of the constitutionality of the DMCA



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