[free-sklyarov] Legal technicality question

[Seth Finkelstein]

Sam Gray wrote:
> Is personal use of a circumvention device illegal under the DMCA, or is it
> merely "trafficking" that's now a crime?  In other words, if I write my own
> software to rip the content from an eBook to exercise my fair use rights,
> can legal action be taken against me?  Or is it just when I try to tell
> someone else about it?

	DMCA violations are crimes when done "for purposes of
commercial advantage or private financial gain".

	http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1204.html

	If not done for commercial advantage or financial gain,
they have civil liability. That is you can "merely" be sued into
poverty, and then some, by a large corporation.

	Now take a look at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html

	Circumvention itself is generally a violation, except for
two exceptions granted by the Library Of Congress (I was partly
responsible for one of them :-)), and some defenses. This is
"1201(a)(1)"

	There is another type of violation, "trafficking", "1201(a)(2)"

"No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, 
or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device,
component, or part thereof, that - 
            (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of 
            circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls 
            access to a work protected under this title;  [etc]

	This is the basis for the charges against Dmitri Sklyarov,
with criminal offense per the above "1204" part of the law.

	Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. Just intensely interested
in the topic, for reasons obvious from the URL below :-)

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com
http://www10.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html