[free-sklyarov] Alan Cox reaction

[Tom]

I've been wondering ever since this broke what we, the non-US citizen
can do. and yes, I've already sent letters to both the local US consul
(snail-mail) and the local russian consul (e-mail). I would also sent
some to my representatives if it weren't for the fact that I'm
currently discussing some other topic (WIPO related) with both of them
and don't want to distract or appear to be paranoid.


alan's comments to usenix, however, made me wonder. I doubt that things
like this are very effective, but they certainly FEEL right. when a
company does big, bad and evil things, I stop buying their stuff. so what
do we do if a country is so fucked up that visiting it becomes
dangerous? I *am* a defendant in the california DeCSS case (civil and
non-DMCA, so no immediate danger), and AFAIK I'm the only one of them
who still has his site up, so there's no knowing what would happen when
I leave the plane.

so personally, I understand and support alan's comments. especially
since it appears that US courts will use *any* excuse to allow
themselves jurisdiction over foreign nationals. therefore, I believe
the time has come to make a choice. those of us who are not americans
should minimize their contacts to the USA, especially commercial
contacts. if we don't, we can be sure that they will be used against
us, if only to establish jurisdiction.

a larger "boycot-dmca-country" activity might even be asked for. then
again, I might just be overreacting.

other non-us list-members, please share your thoughts on this one.


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