[free-sklyarov] AAP at it again - "DMCA essential to the future of E-Commerce"

[Vladimir Katalov]

Hello,

>   The AAP has put up another press release regarding the DMCA
> at http://www.publishers.org/home/press/index.htm.  Same old
> tactics.  Paint those who oppose the DMCA in broad strokes
> -- "an Internet culture which opposes the idea of ownership".
> Use inept and false analogies -- "hacking through encryption ...
> is analogous to making keys to a bookstore or library and selling
> them to others so that they can go in after hours and help
> themselves". 

Even more here:

http://www.publishers.org/home/press/092001speech.htm

Some excerpts:

> We were very surprised when Adobe decided to withdraw their
> complaint against the Russian. However, the Justice Department is
> proceeding anyway, and AAP has become "the bad guy" and a prime
> target for everyone on the Internet who thinks the DMCA is wrong. I
> could fill this room with printed out angry e-mails we've received.
> 
> The Russian hacker was arrested under the anti-circumvention
> provision of the DMCA. This provision is one of the keys to being
> able to protect copyright ownership on the Internet. No reasonable
> person on the planet believes that a totally secure encryption
> system can be developed. Any encryption can be cracked, just as with
> patience and determination, any lock can be picked. The law permits
> an exemption for research, so that if you discover a weakness in my
> encryption system and inform me, that's legal. The problem arises if
> you hack away until you crack my encryption and then sell your
> discovery to allow others to do the same. That's illegal.

> In the Adobe case, AAP saluted the government for taking their
> enforcement duties under the DMCA seriously.

> Other intellectual property associations joined us in backing the
> Justice Department's action against the Russian hacker. We will see
> what happens with the case. We are also working together to get more
> funding the enable the Justice Department to continue enforcing the
> DMCA in the future.

And I was very surprised by the following:

> Consider the case of a New York company that no longer exists.
> FileOpen Systems was a firm that sold extra e-book security for
> scientific journals and financial newsletters that publishers could
> use for their paying customers. ElcomSoft (the same Russian
> operation that broke the Adobe e-book code and was profiting from
> the sale of hacking software) produced a piece of software that
> cracked FileOpen Systems' code, and drove them out of business.

As far as I know, that company still exists (www.fileopen.com);
moreover, they became "Acrobat 5 Security Partner", and released new
version in August.

Btw, our software doesn't support FileOpen since late July.

/Vladimir
vkatalov at elcomsoft.com