[free-sklyarov] DRAFT of letter to Senator Kennedy

[Seth Finkelstein]

	Scott, here's a *DRAFT* of what I'm trying to do in my letter.
This isn't the final verison by far, but since you wanted sample text,
here's a look at my rough version. Note the bracketed material is how
I'm trying to structure it.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com
http://www10.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html

Dear Senator Kennedy

[Why am I writing?]

I am writing to you concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), and the use of the DMCA to arrest and press criminal charges
against Russian graduate student and programmer Dmitry Skylarov when
he was in the United States for a conference. Because of the DMCA and
a dispute between Mr. Skylarov's employer and a US company, he
is currently being held in prison without bail and faces a possible
jail term of many years.

[What should you do?]

I urge you to use your position on the Judiciary Committee to examine
reforms to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please take the
upcoming Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller
to be FBI Director as an opportunity to examine the conduct of the
US Attorney's Office in the case of Mr. Skylarov. Many organizations
have called for the DMCA charges to be dropped against Mr. Skylarov
so that he can be freed.

[Why should you listen to me?]

I write to you with special credentials and particular concern in this
matter. Just this year I received the award of being named a 2001
Pioneer of The Electronic Frontier by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation. I was profiled in the New York Times on July 19. The award
was for hundreds of hours of unpaid decryption work and investigation
in the service of free-speech causes. I will not take the time to go
into details, except to stress that it involved decryptions which
could have subjected me to civil and perhaps criminal liability under
the provisions of the DMCA. My work, along with others doing similar
investigations, was responsible for obtaining a narrow exemption from
the Library Of Congress under the DMCA for performing those
investigations. However, even so, other provisions of the DMCA may
still subject me and others to civil and even criminal penalties. Such
concerns are still a major worry of mine.  Seeing a corporation able
to instigate the arrest of programmer, and a US Attorney's Office
continuing prosecution even after the corporation has decided to ask
for the programmer's release, is an extremely chilling effect.

[Why should you care?]

As one of the few Senators who voted against the Communications
Decency Act (CDA) in 1996, your principled stance against censorship
of the Internet is well-known. The case of Mr. Skylarov demonstrates
how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has became far removed from
any legitimate interests of copyright. If publishers are able to
generate arrests of programmers as part of copyright protections, this
will have a profound influence on future copyright debate.