[free-sklyarov] Re: Continuing the fight

[Martin Keegan]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2001, Ruben Safir wrote:

> I'm more interested in the work we have to do up ahead.  NY Fair Use has 
> made a beach head with Anthony Wiener, who is on the IP subcommittee and 
> is here in Brooklyn.  People should contact him and try to make him more 
> aware of us and get us a face to face in DC.
> 
> If we succeed in working with him, Senator Schumer won't be far behind 
> since they are close friends, and Bouchner willhave one more voice in the 
> Judicial committee.

Boucher is the one who said that the absence of objectors (people like us)
when the DMCA was going through significantly impeded his efforts to tone
down the proposed law, isn't he?
 
> Politcal action is more  important now than ever.

Well, it doesn't look like much can be done to help Dmitri for the time
being. 

Have you folks in the States actually got a plan for getting the DMCA
amended, yet? In the UK, we are faced with the imminent implementation of
an equivalent law, and have had our noses in the academic law journals for
the past few months; there's a huge amount of intellectual ammunition
being stockpiled in the literature by white-hat lawyers, just waiting to
be used on your local neighbourhood politician. 

It's too late to stop the juggernaut in the UK in respect of the
legislation being introduced at the moment (we have serious European
treaty obligations which will blow up on us if we don't pass the law), but
like the DMCA, the EUCD has a "review every couple of years" provision, so
there's everything to play for as we go into the second round :)

Mk