Is that Free Software issue? (Re: [free-sklyarov] What did he do IN THE US that was 'wrong'?)

[Mark K. Bilbo]

The guy who wrote this article also ignores the very likely case that the
FBI is just *wrong.*

If he really thinks that FBI arrests can't happen without good cause, I have
only one word for him:

LEE.

Mark


----- Original Message -----
From: "Hynek "0A4h" Hanke" <hanke at volny.cz>
To: <free-sklyarov at zork.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 8:09 AM
Subject: Is that Free Software issue? (Re: [free-sklyarov] What did he do IN
THE US that was 'wrong'?)


>
>
>  > 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.
>  ...
> >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.
>
> However, there are precedents on both sides.
>
>  Well, what about patents? Does that mean all US patents are
> valuable in e.g. Europe? Does that mean I can't make a software
> (I live in Europe) that breaks some US patent (ok, that nearly means
> I can't do *any* software at all)? As you know, in Europe it is
> *not* possible to patent idea's, mathematical algorithms,
> methods in computer programs. So I'm free (in Europe)
> to make any program I wan't without paying big companies
> for their patents.
>
> Now, if I make this program comercial, that means I require
> money from users, it's OK, because I can simply prevent
> US citizens from paying for it so that it's not avaible in USA
> and I can't break US patents.
>
> But if my program is Free Software (e.g. GPL'd software)
> and I make it avaible on Internet, what does it mean?
> Every US citizen is free to download and I simply can't
> make it unavaible for him.
>
> I know about one german man who was forced to take
> out his Free Software program from internet
> due to US patent.
>
> More information:
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/daa-07.06.01-002/
> http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch
> http://www.cityscope.de/pp3n/index.html
>
http://listserv.fh-furtwangen.de/cgi-bin/lwgate/cgi/lwgate-en-proj.cgi/PROJ-
> IMIM/archives/proj-imim.archive.0106/date/article-21.html
>
> And there are other cases (like an Australian man,
> who was arrested in Germany for nazi propaganda
> uploaded to his australian website in Australia
> -- and I don't think it is clear that this was nazi
> propaganda)
>
> I don't know about other cases, but surely they exist...
> These two are only a little I was told about in patents at aful.org
> conference.
>
> Now that's obvious that Dmitry's case is a big
> issue about how to judge things in Internet as
> well as a free-speech issue and DMCA issue.
>
> I mean that it's absurd to arrest him even if he
> broke DMCA, because he broke it in Russia,
> and then it's absurd to arrest him
> because he is programmer, not seller of AEBPR,
> and last, DMCA is absurd.
>
> There is a trend to judge people's act on internet by
> the country of download, not upload. It seems nonsencial
> to me!
>
> Dmitry's case is definitly one of these issues,
> but it's not only this one. There is much more controversy
> than only that he comited it in Russia and now he is judged
> by US law.
>
> One of the points of the complaint was that Adobe
> managed to buy AEBPR from USA. But what
> if AEBPR was free software? Than the programmer
> has no chance of defending against various
> laws of all these countries in this world.
>
>  This is one of the parts of this problem.
>
>  Hynek Hanke
>
>
>
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