[free-sklyarov] Re: Continuing the fight

[Peter D. Junger]

Seth Finkelstein writes:

: On Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 03:31:36AM -0500, Xcott Craver wrote:
: > 	I'd like to suggest a different POV:  since Dmitry's going
: > to testify for Elcomsoft anyways, I don't see how helpful his cooperation
: > really is.  Rather, I think this agreement is just face-saving on the
: > part of the gov't.  Rather than just dropping the charges, they're
: > dismissing it in exchange for some token assistance that will amount to
: > Dmitry stating what he'd say anyways:  that he wrote the program, and that
: > it does circumvent an access-control mechanism.
: 
: 	Although I'm not a lawyer, as I went through the agreement, it
: appeared he basically had to admit guilt on all counts. It seemed like
: the language of the agreement had him establishing each element of the
: charges. I don't think that was he was planning to do that in the
: first place. ... How can this be just face-saving on the part of the
: government?

There is no admission of guilt there.  There is just a statement
of facts.  Nobody is disputing that those are the facts.  The key
point that is not mentioned is that any acts of Dmitry's that might
arguably violate the DMCA occurred outside of the United States.
When one adds that fact there is no admission of guilt---especially
since the acts of both Dmitry and Elcomsoft should be protected
by the First Amendment.


--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger at samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu   
        NOTE: junger at pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu no longer exists