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<TITLE>Re: [luau] Do your part to keep open source safe</TITLE>
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<META NAME="CREATED" CONTENT="20010731;19552600">
<META NAME="CHANGEDBY" CONTENT="Ben Beeson">
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<PRE>Aloha all,
I was thinking today -- that is sometimes dangerous... What if
someone wrote a piece of software that mildly encrypted some electronic
communications, be it e-mail, web traffic, or whatever and then uses
this software in the lawful pursuit of those three things we all hold
near and dear as listed in the Declaration of Independence... life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/declaration.html ). Let
us now suppose that this piece of software is copyrighted by the author
so that it becomes protected by the DMCA. Now suppose the FBI, or some
other law enforcement agency notices this encrypted traffic and does
not know what it means, or that it is used in the lawful pursuit of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and then decides to crack
it.
Does the copyright owner now have grounds to sue that law enforcement
agency for reverse engineering its software? (Reverse engineering
would be functionally equivalent to cracking the algorithm.) Would a
foreign nation have grounds to sue the US if they discovered their
encrypted communications had been cracked?
I don't know, I was just wondering if we have not already dug our own
grave on this one and we just don't realize it....
Cheers,
Ben
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
On 7/31/01, 9:43:20 AM, Jeff Mings <jeffm@lava.net> wrote regarding
[luau] Do your part to keep open source safe:
> One of the horrible problems with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
is that
> it can criminalize reverse-engineering software to create open-source
> versions. It also criminalizes many common security and privacy
checks.
> Take 10 seconds now to add your signature to the fight against the
DMCA at
> <A HREF="http://www.dibona.com/dmca/">http://www.dibona.com/dmca/</A> . You'll also find more indicting info
there
> about this wretched piece of legislation.
> -Jeff Mings
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to luau as: beesond001@hawaii.rr.com
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-luau-436Q@list.luau.hi.net</PRE>
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