[free-sklyarov] Parallels

Ethan Straffin drumz at best.com
Sat Jul 21 18:22:28 PDT 2001


I've just sent the following message to the DRCTalk mailing list (see
http://www.drcnet.org for more information), whose members concern
themselves with issues related to drug policy reform.  I'm resending it
here in the hope that some of the parallels I've noticed strike a chord
with libertarian types on this side of the fence as well.

Ethan
--
Hi all,

While this isn't related to drug policy, I've found that a number of
drug-policy activists also have an interest in electronic-freedom issues,
and vice versa -- a link which I gently try to encourage when the
opportunity presents itself, since I think it could become a powerful
benefit to both parties if nurtured.  And within the electronic-freedom
community, the legal and political equivalent of an atomic bomb has just
been dropped.  Please read on if you have a few moments.

Five days ago, a Russian programmer named Dmitry Sklyarov became the
second party to be charged in the U.S. under the criminal provisions of
the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  At the urging of Adobe
Systems Incorporated, Sklyarov was arrested by the FBI while in the
U.S. to deliver an address at a convention.  So far, it appears that the
efforts of the Russian consulate and Sklyarov's family to gain access to
Sklyarov have been unsuccessful.

Sklyarov's "crime" was to develop and sell a piece of software that breaks
what passes (quite poorly, it turns out) for encryption in the case of
Adobe's PDF-based eBook software.  In Russia, this is not a crime; in
fact, some have argued that *Adobe* would be the party on shaky legal
ground within Russia.  (Adobe's encryption scheme has the effect of making
it more difficult for consumers to exercise their fair-use rights to
content they have purchased, which rather embarrassingly are more
vigorously protected in Russia than in the U.S.)

This situation is rapidly escalating, and it appears very likely to have
widespread implications when all is said and done.  The Electronic
Frontier Foundation has secured a small victory in that Adobe will meet
with the EFF on Monday, but Adobe and even the EFF are but two players in
a larger drama involving the DMCA itself.  Major protests are being
planned for Monday; the most massive protest, which I plan to attend, will
occur outside Adobe headquarters in San Jose.

To my way of looking at things, there are significant parallels between
what's going on with the DMCA and what's going on with the drug war.  Both
have now been effectively "exported" to other countries, and both expose
the vast short-sightedness of a Congress which is completely out of
control.  Remember Rep. Mark Souter, who's currently engaged in frantic
damage control after the drug provisions of the Higher Education Act went
further than he had intended (or so he claims) by denying federal aid to
34,000 students -- despite the fact that so many of us tried to educate
Souter himself when the HEA was being debated?  Outcry against the DMCA
was even louder while it was in Congress, and yet it passed the Senate
99-0.  Electronic-freedom advocates *knew* this would happen, and let me
tell you: they're pissed, and there are a lot of them.  (In Wired News at
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45298,00.html>, Declan
McCullagh writes, "By Friday afternoon, grassroots organizers on the
free-Sklyarov mailing list had already planned at least a dozen events in
cities across the United States. And the groups had approximately as much
momentum as a very angry rhinoceros who has finally glimpsed his target.")

A couple relevant links:

<http://www.boycottadobe.org>
An excellent informational site and portal to most aspects of the
controversy, including press coverage and activism resources.  This site
also contains a link to the free-sklyarov mailing list.  (Warning: this
list is *extremely* high-traffic at the moment, but also quite interesting
in its discussion of the larger issues of grass-roots activism.)

<http://www.eff.org>
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the best-known and most accomplished
organization working to preserve freedom and privacy in the digital
age.  While the EFF cannot in good faith support the actions planned for
Monday due to their impending negotiations with Adobe, it deserves the
support of anyone with an interest in these issues.

Ethan
--
"The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of
all."                                         -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn




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