[free-sklyarov] OSCON San Diego action

[Marc Perkel]

Since Kevin and I are going to be there, I can say that I would be available to
be part of the panel. Perhaps we should also maybe throw together a one page
handout on the issue --- maybe something that can be added to the material
distributed to attendees.

Here's how I see this. The government is sending a message to the open source
community that they are willing to arrest and jail programmers for writing
tools -- as opposed to prosecuting those who use the tools illegally. It's
equivelent to arresting an assembly line worker at a hammer plant because the
hammer can be used to build an illegal structure. Do we want a world where
programmers have to wonder if they are going to be hauled off to jail. Under
these standards --- John Gillmore would certianly be a criminal for cracking
DES.

I am also offended over the jurisdictional issue. We in America are arresting a
Russian citizen for conduct that occurred in his own country that was lawful in
Russia. Who are we to declare that our laws apply to the entire planet and that
we have the right to arrest an punish people who are not citizens of our
country?

One could make an argument that if there were to be an arrest then it would be
the person directly involved with distribution the (illegal) program in America
in violation of American law. But this is a programmer who had nothing to do
with the distribution of this product here.

If we were to apply the "shoe on the other foot" test --- suppose an american
programmer were arrested in Saudi Arabia for writing a JPEG viewer that allowed
Saudi men to view naked women (naked meaning no veil on face). We would be
ready to go to war over the issue. Is every programmer and every webmaster who
puts anything on the internet to be subject to prosecution for violating any
law anywhere on the planet? I think not --- and I think that since this is a
personal attack against the open source community that it is our duty as open
source programmers (as you know --- I am also a programmer) to assert to the
United States that we will not accept this and we should draw a line in the
sand and tell the United States to back down.

Well --- I'm ranting now. --- My point --- I support action at OSCON - I will
be there - how can I be of service?

Bob La Quey wrote:

> This cannot be allowed to stand. We definitely want to put together
> an action. The only question in my mind is what/when, etc.
>
> I suggest that OSCON should throw together an immediate ad hoc panel
> on this issue. We will probably also want to organize efforts separately
> from the OSCON, which after all has an agenda of its own.
>
> As a minimum we want to find an effective way to leverage this large
> gathering of programmers and to help Dmitry and blast the DMCA.
>
> Just think what the American public would be saying if this was a
> young American programmer with a wife and two children being held
> by the KGB in Moscow. Shame on the USA. Shame on Adobe.
>
> At 07:35 AM 7/20/01 -0700, Will Doherty wrote:
> >Hey Bob,
> >
> >I have cc'ed the two EFF people I know of who are attending
> >OSC... if you all can have a strategy session on this idea,
> >EFF is interested in participating.
> >
> >Free Dmitry,
> >
> >Will Doherty
> >Online Activist / Media Relations
> >Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
> >Web http://www.eff.org
> >
> >Electronic Frontier Foundation - Protecting rights in the digital age
> >-------
> >
> >At 07:25 AM 7/20/2001 -0700, Bob La Quey wrote:
> >>The Open Source Convention will be meeting in San Diego
> >>this next week JUly 23-27. Since this is perhaps the largest
> >>single gathering of Free/Open Source software people anywhere
> >>we should certainly plan some action in response to the
> >>Sklyarov Affair.
> >>
> >>Thoughts?
> >>
> >>
> >>Bob La Quey    Free Dmitry http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov
> >>
> >>
> >>
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>
> Bob La Quey