[free-sklyarov] Legal technicality question

[Dave Sherohman]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 07:04:36PM -0700, 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?

IANAL, etc, but my understanding is that, while they couldn't manage to
ban the _use_ of a circumvention device, creation or aquisition of a
circumvention device were both banned.  So you're perfectly free to use
such a program, but you can't get one without violating DMCA.

-- 
With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not
safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. - Alan Cox
"To prevent unauthorized reading..."         - Adobe eBook reader license