[free-sklyarov] An Alternative Line of Argumentation

[Izel Sulam]

It has been said that framing this case as a consumer rights issue, rather 
than a DMCA issue, avoids the real problem - which is the DMCA itself. It 
has been said that the next time a "decent" product is shown to be flawed, 
the same problem will revisit.

It has been said in reply that a decent product cannot also be a flawed 
product at the same time, by definition. If flaws have been shown, the 
product was not decent to begin with. I tend to agree with this. I also 
tend to think that the next DMCA violation will happen overseas, no one 
involved will step inside US borders, they will stand outside and point at 
us and laugh at us, at our silly laws and at the woeful state of what 
passes for encryption in our commercial products. The US government will be 
forced to take the embarrassing act of censoring information off the 
internet on a national scale, Taliban style. This will be delicious, and 
this sort of Reductio Ad Absurdum is what will get the DMCA repealed.

I would like to repeat very strongly what my suggestions are for statements 
to the press tomorrow. Statements to the press should stress that this is a 
consumer rights issue. Adobe makes a very expensive line of crypto 
products, and claims that these are secure, and they are not, and this is a 
fraud and a sham, and Dmitry Sklyarov brought this to the attention of the 
world, and now Adobe is getting him illegally arrested rather than 
imporving their products. Adobe is a profit-hungry corporation that has 
acted in bad faith, fradulently misrepresented the capabilities of its 
flawed products, and continues to take steps intended to do nothing but 
salvage its PR image, damn product quality, damn consumer satisfaction. 
That sort of thing should get a bunch of shareholder and customer class 
action lawsuits going, and deservedly so.

What would happen if auto makers had Ralph Nader illegally arrested? Where 
would we be then? 

Since when has consumer advocacy been punishable by jailtime?

Think along these lines. Make statements along these lines to the press, 
and to curious passersby who ask. Consumer advocacy is Right and Good and 
Tastes Like Mom's Apple Pie.

It is alright to also add that the DMCA is a controversial law, but as I 
pointed out before, I do not believe that this is a battleground on which 
we can defeat the DMCA. We must concentrate on Freeing Sklyarov here. Do 
not spend the majority of your time discussing what the DMCA is or does or 
why it stinks. You will lose the interest and favor of the precarious 
attention span of your audience. We must spend our energies battling the 
DMCA in a more advantageous case, more appealing to the public's sense of 
What is Right and Good and Tastes Like Mom's Apple Pie (such as the Felten 
case).

Comments, suggestions welcome.
- izel

P.S. Find slogan suggestions at 
http://izel.sulam.com/boycottadobe/slogans.html