[free-sklyarov] An Alternative Line of Argumentation
Izel Sulam
izel at sulam.com
Sat Jul 21 20:31:50 PDT 2001
Declan McCullagh declan at well.com wrote:
>A mild addition: What happens when a company has decent (or at least
>better than crappy) products, security broken, DMCA prosecution happens?
DMCA prosection will not happen, because the security will be broken
overseas, and whoever did it will know better than to ever set foot in this
hellhole we call the USA.
And all previously US-based security conferences will move to Canada within
the next 12 months, and our most valuable CS professors will immigrate to
Canada, etc, etc.
But seriously.
Declan, you seem to be operating under the assumption that this case is our
only chance of getting the DMCA repealed. This is clearly not true on its
face. In fact, there are a bunch of reasons why using this case to try and
get the DMCA repealed would be unwise.
1) Dmitry is not even an American citizen. He does not belong here. He
belongs in his home, with his family.
2) The DMCA is our problem. It is cruel for us to keep a poor foreigner in
jail while we go through the slow, repetitive and redundant motions of our
fucked up legal system.
3) This case is fraught with dangerous undertones of communism and
hackerlike activity, which scare the sheeple and can sway public opinion.
The best kind of case that would get the DMCA repealed would be a clear
Free Speech or academia case, such as the Felten case. The public and the
courts have much more respect for American professors than (those whom they
perceive to be) dangerous communist hackers.
4) I already posted about this, but whitehouse.gov was attacked by a
Chinese communist worm just a few days ago. Neither the public nor the
courts will have much affection for (what they perceive to be) Yet Another
Communist Hacker.
5) Due to these reasons, I put it to you that our number one priority
should be to Free Dmitry. Also to ruin Adobe's public image beyond repair.
Not to get the DMCA repealed. Not right now. We must pick our battles
wisely, and this battleground is not one on which we can defeat the DMCA.
I rest my case.
Comments, suggestions welcome.
- izel
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