[free-sklyarov] You have my support! (fwd)

[Pablos Kadrevis]

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Sunday, July 22, 2001 8:19 PM -0400
From: Dennis Warner <denniswarner at denniswarner.net>
To: "nicehair at boycottadobe.com" <nicehair at boycottadobe.com>
Subject: You have my support!

My name is Dennis Warner, and I am an author and (small) publisher
from the United States.  I first heard of Dmitry's plight on wired.com,
where I have also been watching very closely the issues with
2600-DeCSS, Napster and Princeton professor Edward Felten.

Not only am I scared of the future I see ahead, but downright appalled that
our courts are pandering to the corporations and blatantly disregarding
our rights.

Free speech and fair use are being trampled on and  disregarded in an
alarming
fashion.  Not only do the means not justify the end, but the end itself
should
be questioned.

Making money may be as American as apple pie, but so is free speech and our
freedom from the tyranny of our government and big business!

The saddest things is that DeCSS simply allows legitimate Linux consumers
to watch what they own, just as the software from Elcomsoft would allow an
Adobe customer to take an ebook they bought and view it on as many machines
as they like.  Correct me if I am wrong, but the only way you can share
an Adobe ebook is if you buy the $40 dollar version of their ebook reader
and
the person you are lending it to has that version also.  Now, when did it
become acceptable that a consumer should have to pay $40 dollars to share
what he owns?  When has it become acceptable to let corporations
inconvenience
consumers and take away their rights to share and to enjoy books, music and
movies with friends (without paying for the privilege)?

What did they expect?  That if they forced restrictions on consumers and
made
their DRM obtrusive and overly controlling, consumers would just hold out
their bowls and ask for more?

If you want to talk about capitalism and market forces, then look at the
fact that people were willing to dole out $99 dollars to get their rights
back.
The market was just following demand.  Sounds American to me.

And yes, of course Elcomsoft's software could be used to pirate ebooks, but
just
because guns can kill people (or more correctly, a few bad apples could),
doesn't
mean we stop selling them to legitimate people.  And accordingly, we should
not
ban this type of software that gives us back our fair use rights, just
because
a few people might use it for pirating purposes.

Look, I've worked very hard at my craft and my business and DO want to be
rewarded monetarily, but not if it means sacrificing my ideals.  And that is
why
I started Tortured Writer Publishing (http://www.torturedwriter.com) and
plan to
publish all my ebooks sans DRM.  And yes, I do think a valid business plan
can be
built without a foundation of Digital Rights Management.

I was going to release my ebook in Adobe format (without DRM, of course),
but
will now postpone those plans until they release Dmitry.

If the powers that be (the corporations) are not stopped now, before they
build too much of a DRM infrastructure, we may never gain control again.
The war has started and me must not be passive in this matter.

Feel free to list http://www.denniswarner.net under a heading of
those sites that support the cause, and know that you have an author on your
side.

Sincerely,
Dennis Warner
Tortured Writer Publishing


------------------------------------

    http://www.denniswarner.net
  Homepage of poet Dennis Warner

   http://www.torturedwriter.com
    Tortured Writer Publishing

-------------------------------------


---------- End Forwarded Message ----------


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