[free-sklyarov] Letter to Adobe HR

Ryan Marsh me at ryanmarsh.com
Sat Jul 21 04:21:52 PDT 2001


Wow, you've got some balls! You did the right thing.

On 21 Jul 2001 00:52:06 -0400, Michael D. Crawford wrote:
> I sent the following email just now to Cheryl Erickson, a member of the Adobe HR
> Department who had been considering me for a position with the company.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mike
> ---
> Subject: I withdraw my application on principle
> 
> Cheryl,
> 
> This is quite difficult for me, but I feel that as a matter of principal I must
> withdraw my application for the Photoshop Software Engineering Manager and the
> other positions I recently applied for at Adobe Systems.
> 
> The following letter which I just mailed to many of my friends and family
> explains why in more detail.  But if you don't want to read the whole thing, at
> least read this:
> 
> http://www.goingware.com/reputation/
> 
> Thank you for your help.  I look forward to better days, when programmers can do
> their work without fear.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Michael D. Crawford
> --
> Subject: Free Dmitry
> 
> Friends,
> 
> I have long held the belief that computer programs are constitutionally
> protected free speech.  They are, after all, how us programmers
> communicate with each other.  This is also the opinion of at least one
> federal court, although it is yet to be tested by the Supreme Court.
> 
> However, on July 16, Russian computer programmer Dmitry Sklarov was
> arrested by the FBI for writing a computer program and presenting a
> paper on it at a security conference in Las Vegas.
> 
> His paper, "eBooks Security: Theory and Practice", exposed the woefully
> inadequate security schemes used to copy protect Adobe eBooks ("secure"
> electronic publications, basically encrypted PDF files).
> 
> If you have PowerPoint, you can get his presentation here:
> 
> http://www.download.ru/defcon.ppt
> 
> You can purchase, and download a free trial version of Advanced eBook
> Processor here:
> 
> http://www.elcomsoft.com/aebpr.html
> 
> Rather thank thanking him for revealing their engineering flaws, Adobe
> made a complaint to the FBI, and the FBI arrested him under the Digital
> Millenium Copyright Act.  He is being held without bail, out of
> communication with his wife and children, in a foreign country, facing a
> $500,000 fine and five years in federal prison.
> 
> The digital millenium copyright act is clearly unconstitutional, not
> just in that it violates free speech for programmers, but that it
> violates fair use - the right of citizens to make limited copies of
> copyrighted materials for certain uses such as backup and academic
> research.
> 
> If you want to know more about Dmitry's case, please visit:
> 
> http://www.boycottadobe.com/
> 
> You'll find pictures there of Dmitry, and of his wife and children, who
> I am sure miss him greatly.
> 
> And please consider joining the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is
> pressing two other court cases to try to have the DMCA ruled
> unconstitutional and will lend his support to Dmitry once the U.S.
> Marshalls tell them where he is, you can do so here:
> 
> http://www.eff.org/support/
> 
> I leave you with the following words of wisdom, spoken 100 years ago.
> 
> Make a Bonfire of Your Reputations
> http://www.goingware.com/reputation/
> 
> It's hard for me to write this letter as I just applied for a position as
> Photoshop Software Engineering Manager at Adobe Systems, the creator of
> eBooks.  Times have been hard for me and my little family for quite some time,
> and that would be a good job for me for which I feel I am quite qualified, but I
> know it would be wrong to fail to speak out on this abuse of Dmitry's
> constitutional rights, and the rights of software engineers everywhere.
> 
> Please pass this mail on to anyone who might be interested to hear it.
> 
> Ever Faithful,
> 
> Michael D. Crawford
> GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
> http://www.goingware.com/
> crawford at goingware.com
> 
>    Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> free-sklyarov mailing list
> free-sklyarov at zork.net
> http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov
--
Regards,
-ryan

The three great virtues of programming are laziness, impatience, 
and hubris, but bigotry makes the open-source world go round.




More information about the Free-sklyarov mailing list