[free-sklyarov] Wretched article at inside.com

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sat, Aug 04, 2001 at 05:45:39PM -0700, Jon O . (jono at microshaft.org) wrote:
> > >
> > > Anyone for a march on the AAP offices during Usenix?  These people
> > > have basically declared war on programmers.
> > >
> > > -Doug
> > 
> > Not just programmers but on the Republic itself. The more I read
> > what the founding fathers *meant with copyright and about their
> > concerns about monopolies granted by the state, I'm moving to the
> > position that people such as Parloff are traitors to the Republic.
> > 
> > And I'm not just throwing words. I *mean it.
> > 
> > The free flow of ideas is essential to maintaining a democracy. Ours
> > is in enough trouble with a public that is becoming increasingly
> > less educated and informed. But to directly assault the limitations
> > the founders meant on monopolies on information is to betray what
> > this nation allegeds to be.
> > 
> > "Intellectual property" is, I now think, treason.
> > 
> 
> Also, bear in mind the DMCA came from a treaty with the WIPO. I think
> someone mentioned this, but just to toss it out again, doesn't this
> treaty overrule our national laws. Meaning, how much effect would our
> Supreme Court have over the WIPO or laws coming down from them? It
> seems like we are also losing our "Checks and Balances."

As noted, treaties are subject to, not superior to, the Constitution.

The treaty as presented doesn't call for the fascistic measures imposed
in the US DMCA.  It does call for effective legal penalties over
circumvention of 

    Article 11:  Obligations concerning Technological Measures

    Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and
    effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective
    technological measures that are used by authors in connection with
    the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne
    Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which
    are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.

    http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/distrib/treaty01.htm

Note "in respect of THEIR works, which are not authorized BY THE AUTHORS
concerned OR PERMITTED BY LAW" (emphasis added).

It would seem to me that the DMCA grossly oversteps the WIPO guidelines
themselves by:

  - Proscriptively prohibiting actions otherwise allowed by law.

  - Prohibiting actions regardless of whether they are applied to
    works addressed under the treaty.  "Their works" would tend to
    exclude works already under, say, public domain, or otherwise not
    covered by copyright.

  - Seeking authorization from publishers and technology licensees,
    rather than authors.

  - Creating a new class of prohibitions against actions unrelated to
    copyright violations alltogether.

As one-sided as WIPO is, the DMCA makes a bad thing far worse.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>            http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?               There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/                 http://www.kuro5hin.org
   Free Dmitry!! Boycott Adobe!! Repeal the DMCA!!   http://www.freesklyarov.org
Geek for Hire                          http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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