[free-sklyarov] Re: sales not security

[Izel Sulam]

tony.underhill.lwi0 at statefarm.com wrote:

>If Mr. Sklyarov was interested in security, why is he selling his software?

I had a chance to read your letter to boycottadobe.com and wanted to take 
the opportunity to answer your question.

You are asking why Dmitry Sklyarov's employer sells password recovery 
and/or decryption software. (Your question is incorrectly worded, because 
it implies that Dmitry Sklyarov himself sells software, which he never has, 
in Russia, the US, or anywhere else. Mr. Sklyarov produces software under 
the employ of Elcomsoft, to whom the copyright of said software is then 
immediately transferred. Therefore, Mr. Sklyarov couldn't sell the software 
that he wrote even if he wanted to, because he no longer owns the copyright 
to it. But this is all beside the point - this has more to do with why 
Sklyarov's arrest is illegal even under the strictest interpretation of the 
DMCA.)

To go back to your question, Elcomsoft sells password recovery and/or 
decryption software because its customers demand this sort of software. 
What kind of customer would demand password recovery and/or decryption 
software? They must be all criminals and crackers and pedophiles, right? In 
fact, Elcomsoft's client list includes some of the most esteemed 
intelligence agencies of the world, including the CIA, the FBI, and the 
KGB. Also, any citizen of Russia has the legal right to use this sort of 
software in order to interoperate or produce an archival backup - legally 
protected rights that no software corporation can take away. Until 
recently, American citizens have had these very same rights, until a law 
known as the DMCA - purchased by the software and entertainment industries 
from lawmakers who have forgotten their real job and responsibility to 
their constituents - made the exercise of these rights illegal.

Today's victory gives us hope that Dmitry, who was illegally arrested to 
begin with, will hopefully soon go free and return to his family. But our 
larger purpose is to get the DMCA repealed. We cannot in good conscience 
pretend to be proper American citizens as long as a law remains on the 
books that is in direct violation of the First and Second Amendments.

Thanks for listening.
- izel