[free-sklyarov] Two more songs

Stephen R. Savitzky steve at theStarport.org
Sun Jul 29 22:15:53 PDT 2001


I only joined this list a few days ago, but I didn't see these in the
archives.  Both of the two songs that follow were written to the same
(rather inevitable, given the happy coincidence of scansion) tune (which
in turn was originally a song about a trainwreck -- seems about right).
Both have recently appeared in rec.music.filk

=======================================================================

                             Dmitri and DMCA
Lyrics Copyright 2001 Stephen Savitzky.  All rights reserved.
TTTO: ``Charlie on the MCA'' Please send donations to the Electronic
Frontier Foundation in lieu of royalties if you record it.

Now let me tell you the story of a man named Dmitri
On that tragic and fateful day
He left his home in Russia, caught a plane for Las Vegas,
Got caught up in DMCA.

    And did he ever return?  No, he never returned,
    And his fate is still unlearned.
    He may rot forever in a federal prison
    He's a man who never returned.


Now Dmitri wrote a paper about Adobe's eBook format
And its copy protection flaw
And he wrote a little program that let folks recover passwords
And make backups as allowed by law. 

But the Digital Millenium Copyright Act 
Is a law that says you can't invent,
Produce, sell or describe any device or program
Such protection for to circumvent.

So instead of thanking Dmitri for his help with their software
And for speaking freely what he'd learned,
They called in the FBI and had Dmitri arrested
He's a man who never returned.

Now there's one more little detail about copy protection
So ironic that it must be told:
If you can't make backup copies it's _illegal in Russia_
Where Adobe eBooks can't be sold!

Now you citizens and readers, don't you think it's a scandal
How the people have to pay and pay?
Fight for fair use rights, fight to free Dmitri,
And to bring down the DMCA!

    Or else he'll never return.  No, he'll never return,
    And his fate will be unlearned.
    He may rot forever in a federal prison
    He's a man who never returned.


Please feel free to archive, perform, record, publish, and otherwise
distribute this song.  Feel free to add verses, but if you do make sure
your poetic license is up to date. 

    Never anger a bard, for your name sounds funny and scans to many popular
    songs.

This document has been encrypted with TITE (Triple Invertible Transform
Encoding) by encrypting with ROT13, exclusive or with the text of the
U.S. Constitution, and byte-by-byte subtraction from the contents of the file
/dev/zero, followed by the same operations in reverse order for
additional security.

Describing the implementation details of this intricate procedure, and
explaining why the document still appears to be readable afterwards, is a
violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

=======================================================================

Dimitri and DMCA
Lyrics: Gary McGath, Copyright 2001
Music: "The Ship that Never Returned," aka "Charlie on the MTA"

Permission is granted to distribute and perform for non-profit purposes, 
provided attribution and this notice remain intact.
If you think you can actually make money with it, let's talk.

If you don't know what this song is about, see www.freesklyarov.org for 
more information.


Oh, let me tell you all a story of a man named Dimitri
And the sad and fateful day
When the code he wrote to make backup copies
Fell foul of DMCA.

Chorus:
   And will he ever be freed?
   Well, he ought to be freed
   From confinement that's unearned.
   He could sit for years in a federal prison,
   Be the man who never returned.

Now Dimitri worked on a software project
To convert Adobe files.
But Adobe said, "You aren't allowed to do that.
It would really cramp our styles."

Then Dimitri came to the Land of Freedom,
And what happened turned him pale,
For writing legal software in his own home country
He was carted off to jail.

Then Dimitri said, "I didn't know that Russia
Now belonged to the USA."
But the Feds replied, "Our laws can cross all borders,
So in prison you've got to stay."

Now Adobe said it was fine to jail him
Till they heard the protests rise,
Then they figured out the PR was awful,
And decided to apologize.

But the Feds still say, "We arrested him proper,
And that's hard work, don't you know.
We should give our visitors a proper welcome,
So we can't just let him go."

Now you people everywhere, isn't it a scandal
That our leaders act this way?
Let's release Dimitri and restore our freedom, 
And repeal the DMCA.

-- 
Gary McGath    gmcgath at REMOVETHISmcgath.com
http://www3.primushost.com/~gmcgath/


-- 
 /   Steve Savitzky   \ 1997 Pegasus Award winner: best science song--+  \
/ <steve at theStarport.org>      http://theStarport.com/people/steve/   V   \
\   hacker/songwriter:       http://theStarport.com/people/steve/Doc/Songs/
 \_ Kids' page: MOVED ---> http://Interesting.Places.to/Browse/forKids/ _/




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