[free-sklyarov] Quick Query for Campus Campaign

[Xcott Craver]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Alex Katalov wrote:

> BTW - even more. His PhD was heard by University professors (sorry,
> don't know the right English therm), was accepted, and was _officially_
> filed at July 2 - right two weeks before his arrest.

	Thanks for the information.  Could you clarify some points, tho?

	Do you mean that Dmitry has now been awarded his Ph.D. --- i.e.,
	that he is finished with school completely?  Or have the
	professors just	approved his proposal for Ph.D. research?

	The question is, is he still an enrolled student, or would be
	if he weren't arrested?  I want to know exactly what to write.

	Also, Sklyarov's job at Elcomsoft:  would you consider this
	full-time permanent employment, or something akin to a
	student internship?

> I think it may be sensitive for students to learn that after finishing
> the university or post-graduating, they may be arrested and charged
> for what they did as a part of their diploma or dissertation!!!

	Absolutely.  Students are quite shocked to hear this, in my
	experience.

	There's another hot issue with engineering students:  that
	companies are essentially pressuring them to avoid having
	any impact on their present industry, or devaluing present
	technologies which these companies sell.

	As we know, this is impossible because all new scientific
	discoveries can devalue old technologies in favor of new ones.
	Or, we can discover that certain products are defective,
	ineffective, or hazardous to public health.  There's no
	point in being an engineering student if you can't advance
	the state of the art; might as well go study pure math.

						Thanks for your help,
						Xcott

	[Not that there's anything wrong with studying pure math.]