Fight back against the DMCA

Deven Phillips dphillips at viata.com
Wed Sep 5 03:38:35 PDT 2001


All,

	I would like to challenge all readers of this mailing list to write to
thier representatives in the US government. The purpose of this
correspondence is to protest the further support of the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act. Below is the letter that I wrote to each of
these politicians.

	Be sure when writing to each of these congressmen that you include your
mailing address in the e-mail.

Honorable Mr. [Akaka, Inouye, Abercrombie]

        I am writing to you on the behalf of a group of your
constituents in Honolulu. I represent a group of individuals who are
interested in the developments of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
After reviewing some of the cases over the last year, I am quite
concerned about the implications of this law. After cases including the
Dimitry Sklyarov case, it appears that the DMCA could potentially affect
all Americans and their rights. The content providers; print publishers,
movie studios, recording companies, etc...; have the potential take away
privileges that we as Americans take for granted. I fear that the
potential of the DMCA includes not longer being able to borrow books
from libraries, sharing movies with friends, selling your copies of
content to third persons, and more. In particular, I would like to draw
your attention to the Dimitry Sklyarov case going on in San Francisco
federal courts now, in which a foreign citizen is charged with violating
a US law in his own country, which is not a crime in his home. His
"crimes" include allowing persons to copy an electronic book for the
purposes of taking it with them on their laptop of PDA. The potential
punishment he is facing include 25 years in a US Federal Penitentiary.
Mr. Sklyarov has a wife and two young children in eastern europe where
he lives, who will not see him until his children are full grown if our
legal system continues with this miscarriage of justice. 

        Mr. Akaka, while I know that you have no direct power over this
particular case, I would like you to consider this as a call to arms
against unjust laws which were passed. The DMCA subverts the concept of
copyright as a method for companies to recoup their costs for innovation
into a method for companies to own legalized monopolies. As we all know,
monopolies hurt innovation and stifle the American economy. I do believe
that copyrights are an essential part of our commerce, but taking this
to the extreme is anti productive.

I thank you for your time and consideration, and I hope that you
understand your constituents concerns.

Joseph B. Phillips, CISSP
Chief Security Officer
Viata, Inc.
dphillips at viata.com
(808) 348-0885
(808) 440-4994



The Honorable Niel Abercrombie - neil.abercrombie at mail.house.gov
The Honorable Senator Daniel Akaka - senator at akaka.senate.gov
The Honorable Senator Daniel Inouye -
http://inouye.senate.gov/abtform.html

Thank You for your support and assistance in working within the system
to exercise change.

Deven Phillips, CISSP
Chief Security Officer
Viata, Inc.



More information about the LUAU mailing list