[luau] RIGHTS: Sorry, Banned in the USA

[Warren Togami]

http://plf.zarb.org/

"Here you'll find some package that can't be included into mandrake for
legal reasons (copyright/license/patent)."

It has stuff like a working DVD player for Mandrake Linux.  

Unfortunately, if you live in the United States it is illegal for you to
download or use this software because you would be in violation of the
Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

The DMCA is an overbroad, unconstitutional law that makes any
"circumvention tool" illegal to distribute or use in the United States. 
This has the side-effect of making it illegal to make and distribute a
working DVD player for Linux in the United States.

One site in particular that points out the stupidity of this law is 
http://www.thefreeworld.net

Notice their map of the free world.  Here is a quote from their site:
"New laws in the USA not only make it illegal for US citizens to use or
produce many kinds of useful software or inform/publishing research
about such software (that's ok, after all it's their law), but also seek
to prevent citizens of other countries from making such software or
information available to the US."

If you take a look at their list of files banned in the USA you may
notice a strange looking item.  kernel-2.2.20pre11.log.  Yes, under the
strict code of US law, it is illegal for you to read that document. 
Why?  Because it contains information that can be used as a
circumvention tool to exploit an old Linux kernel security bug.

Linux developer Alan Cox of Red Hat (who lives in Great Britain) refused
to make that knowledge available to US developers for fear of
prosecution under the strict interpretation of the DMCA.  He and many
other developers also refuse to visit the USA now because they fear
imprisonment like what happened to Russian programmer Dmitri Sklyarov
last year.

Things with the DMCA are ridiculous now, but guess what?  It may soon
become worse if the CBDTPA is enacted into law.  Under the CBDTPA all
hardware and software in the United States would need to be Federally
Approved to respect copy controls set by the movie and record industry
of America.

Things like the DMCA and CBDTPA will steadily erode the rights and
capabilities of American business and academia.  Foreign businesses will
gain an upper hand over America because they have no such unjust
restrictions.  This would have a devastating effect on the US economy...

One more thing, the CBDTPA would effectively outlaw Open Source Software
in the USA.

Please learn more about the DMCA and CBDTPA.
(Thankfully Google maintains a useful directory of DMCA and CBDTPA
information.)

DMCA Information
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Intellectual_Property/Copyrights/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act/
CBDTPA Information
(Formerly known as the SSSCA)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Intellectual_Property/Copyrights/Security_Systems_Standards_and_Certification_Act/

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com