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

Peter pmasloch at earthlink.net
Thu Jul 26 05:22:51 PDT 2001


But you forgot one importent thing. Dmitry didn't sell the software by
himself. It was the Company (ElcomSoft) for which he is working. This is
a different picture. The DoJ has to go after the Company and not after
one Employee. From this point of view, Dmitry's arrest has no legal
background because he personaly did not violate the DMCA law other then
just speaking about the software. And this should be protected by the
right of free speach.
Peter


Free Dmitry Sklyarov
Stop the DMCA
----------------------------------------
http://www.freesklyarov.org
http://www.boycottadobe.org



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unjust legislation that should be repealed.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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>free-sklyarov mailing list
>free-sklyarov at zork.net
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