[free-sklyarov] What did he do IN THE US that was 'wrong'?

[Eric Tully]

I'm finding that some people think that the FBI had a right to arrest him 
(under the currently flawed DMCA) and other people think that they had no 
right to arrest him.

If the FBI had no right to arrest him, then this wouldn't be a programming 
issue.  It wouldn't be a free speech issue.  It wouldn't even be a DMCA 
issue.  If the FBI had no right to arrest him, then any decent lawyer would 
simply stand in front of the judge and say, "I have tons of precedent 
showing that Russians aren't subject to American laws, you have to let him 
go."  And the judge would.

But I don't think that's the case.

Columbian drug lords sell cocaine to middle men who bring it to the US and 
because of extradition laws, we drag the kingpins here and try them in 
American courts (when we can catch them!).  The fact that they were in 
Columbia when they broke American law was irrelevent.  They did something 
that affected Americans.

I think the key is that he broke American law by distributing it on the 
Internet and then he set foot on American soil.  I mean, if you're going to 
break American law in a way that "harms" American interests, I think you 
*should* be arrested if you come to American soil.

(Don't get me wrong, I don't think he harmed Adobe and I think the DMCA is 
unjust legislation that should be repealed.  But I don't think that the 
arrest was illegal under current law.)

I know people will disagree with me on this.  I'd be interested in a 
lawyer's comment.

- Eric






At 12:17 PM 7/26/01 +1000, you wrote:

> > After talking with some friends of mine, and long discussions; here
> > is what I came up with.
> > Even, I feel that US has no right arresting Sklyarov; but under
> > DMCA the FBI "did" have the right to arrest Sklyarov.
> > So, we pretty much don't have a case against the DoJ and the
> > chances of Sklyarov getting the jail time is high.
> > (I don't like this anymore then you guys do; but that is what
> > might happen)
>
>Um. What did Sklyarov do *IN THE USA* that was against US law?
>
>As I understand it, he did something *in Russia* that is against
>US law, but NOT against Russian law.
>
>As I understand it, all he did in the USA that was even remotely
>potentially 'wrong' was present an academic paper.
>
>
>
>
>Jenn V.
>--
>     "Do you ever wonder if there's a whole section of geek culture
>             you miss out on by being a geek?" - Dancer.
>
>jenn at simegen.com     Jenn Vesperman     http://www.simegen.com/~jenn/
>
>
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