[free-sklyarov] Congress says: Keep Dmitry in jail! Washington loves DMCA...
Mark K. Bilbo
mkbilbo at cdcla.com
Wed Jul 25 09:39:56 PDT 2001
Nah, the Wobblies are too much for me too. I'm just tired of the IT folk
being smeared and outlawed every time we turn around these days. By, of
course, the very same people who couldn't boot their computers without the
Help Desk.
We've more power than we realize. Which may explain why the assault is so
strong. But I'm just in the mood of "if you don't want what we do, fine."
It would just be *so great if a group of key sysadmins went "oops, oh dear,
that'll be down all day" and just shut the blasted 'Net down a day.
But, anyway, I just keep wondering how long we're all going to keep putting
up with being smeared as "EVIL HACKERS!!!!!" and having things like DMCA and
UCITA being thrown at us. Do they expect us to be good little slaves and
just stay in our cubicles making the funny boxes work while they pee on us
every chance they get?
And now Congress is snearing at us? DMCA is working just fine eh? Meaning
it's a success in showing those geeks we can throw them in jail anytime we
like? Keep them cowed and turning the crank on the economy while we strip
all their rights away (along with the rights of any other of those "citizen"
things that get in the way).
If we're such horrible people then, gosh, I wouldn't want to keep harming
them by, oh, making the Internet go.
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith A. Glass" <kglass at vcompro.com>
To: "Mark K. Bilbo" <mkbilbo at cdcla.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 9:23 AM
Subject: RE: [free-sklyarov] Congress says: Keep Dmitry in jail! Washington
loves DMCA...
Well, the Wobblies (iww.org) were trying to organize an IT union. . .
their politics are a bit extreme for me, but go ahead, take a look...
Keith A. Glass
Systems Administrator
Virtual Compliance, Inc
1555 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 520
Arlington, VA, 22209
Direct: 703-340-1734
Fax: 703-340-1755
Web: http://www.vcompro.com
-----Original Message-----
From: free-sklyarov-admin at zork.net
[mailto:free-sklyarov-admin at zork.net]On Behalf Of Mark K. Bilbo
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 12:06 PM
To: Declan McCullagh; free-sklyarov at zork.net
Subject: Re: [free-sklyarov] Congress says: Keep Dmitry in jail!
Washington loves DMCA...
That DOES it. I am SO sick and tired of being made into a "criminal."
I'd
like to see these marketing frat boy types run the digital
infrastructure
WITHOUT us.
We need to organize. Seriously. Before they turn IT into a sweat shop,
slave
industry or some damn thing. I would just love to see us organized to
the
point we could have a "Internet down day." Turn the thing OFF and then
tell
the marketing droids and excutwits "hey, you want it, you make the funny
boxes go."
Mark (steaming)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Declan McCullagh" <declan at well.com>
To: <free-sklyarov at zork.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 7:31 AM
Subject: [free-sklyarov] Congress says: Keep Dmitry in jail! Washington
loves DMCA...
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com> -----
>
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
> To: politech at politechbot.com
> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 10:24:10 -0400
> X-URL: Politech is at http://www.politechbot.com/
>
>
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45522,00.html
>
> Congress No Haven for Hackers
> By Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
>
> 2:00 a.m. July 25, 2001 PDT
>
> WASHINGTON -- Even as the world's geeks march against the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act, key legislators and lobbyists are
dismissing
> concerns about the controversial law as hyperbole.
>
> The law that led to the arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry
Sklyarov
> last week and an immediate outcry among programmers continues to
enjoy
> remarkably broad support on Capitol Hill. No bill has yet been
> introduced in Congress to amend the DMCA for one simple reason:
> Official Washington loves the law precisely as much as hackers and
> programmers despise it.
>
> "The law is performing the way we hoped," said Rep. Howard Coble
> (R-North Carolina), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on
> intellectual property.
>
> The FBI arrested Sklyarov last week in Las Vegas for allegedly
> "trafficking" in software that circumvents the copy protection
> techniques that Adobe uses in its e-book format. Under the DMCA,
> selling such software is a federal felony punishable by up to five
> years in prison and a fine of $500,000.
>
> "As far as I know there have been very few complaints from
> intellectual property holders," Coble, the chief sponsor of the
DMCA,
> said in an interview Tuesday. "I am also encouraged by the
Department
> of Justice's actions in this matter to enforce the law."
>
> When Congress approved the DMCA in October 1998 after about a
year's
> worth of little-noticed debate and negotiations, it was hardly a
> controversial bill. The Senate agreed to it unanimously, and a
> unanimous House approved it by voice vote, then bypassed a
procedural
> step that would have delayed the DMCA's enactment.
>
> Since the House procedure says attempts to rewrite copyright law
must
> start in Coble's subcommittee, the odds of a DMCA rewrite in
Congress'
> lower chamber seem remote.
>
> Coble's counterpart in the Senate, California Democrat Dianne
> Feinstein, feels the same way.
>
> "We need to protect copyrights and this law was designed to do
that,"
> said Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, who chairs the
Senate
> Judiciary subcommittee on technology. "She's not looking to change
> it."
>
> [...]
>
> But in the world of Washington politics, geektivists are woefully
> outnumbered by the natives who populate and influence confirmation
> hearings: Corporate, nonprofit and trade association lobbyists.
>
> "We believe that a careful effort was made by Congress to balance
the
> rights of intellectual property owners and the rights of
intellectual
> property consumers," says Allan Adler, vice president at the
> Association of American Publishers, which applauded Sklyarov's
arrest
> last week.
>
> [...]
>
> The Free-Dmitry movement argues that programmers should not be
> prosecuted for creating software that can circumvent copyright
> protection -- since such tools have many legitimate uses, such as
> reading an e-book on another computer, as well.
>
> But DMCA aficionados say there are precedents for broad
prohibitions
> on selling devices that can have both legitimate and illegitimate
> uses.
>
> Current federal law makes it a felony to own, distribute or
advertise
> for sale bugging or wiretapping devices that are "primary useful
for
> the purpose of surreptitious interception of wire, oral or
electronic
> communications." That applies even to parents who might want to
> monitor what their young children are doing, or to other
commonplace
> uses.
>
> You're also not allowed to possess hardware or software such as
cell
> phone cloning devices that let you "obtain telecommunications
service
> without authorization" -- even if your motives are pure.
>
> [...]
>
>
>
>
>
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