[free-sklyarov] NC Call to Protest

Adrian Dunston adunston at jetstream.com
Tue Jul 31 07:15:58 PDT 2001


Today, I'm writing to several organizations and news lists to get support
for the North Carolina protest.  These organizations include John Locke
Foundation, Libertarian Party, Democratic Party, our senators, local
authors, and local publishers.  If you have a chance, please tell me if
there's anything unfavorable or inaccurate in the letter:

	-Adrian P. Dunston

***

There's a protest going on at the North
Carolina State Capitol (as well as twenty other cities) on Friday at
11:30am.   Details are at http://www.freesklyarov.org and
http://badlaw.moongroup.org.
I encourage you to come and show support.  I'll give you a brief of the
beef, 
and if you're interested you can let me know.

* A Russian student is being held without bail in an Oklahoma prison for
giving a speech in Las Vegas two weeks ago. *

--------------------------------------------
             THE SHORT VERSION

According to a law that took effect last year, while Americans have specific
rights to copy and use media they've legally bought (like books and movies),
they cannot exercise those rights if the media has been encoded in any way.
Dmitry Skylarov is the first man ever to be jailed for telling people how to
decode and read a book.
--------------------------------------------

	THE DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (DMCA)

	1. When the US Constitution was written, it provided Congress the
power "To
promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited
times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective
writings and discoveries;"

	2. Not much later, to promote the progress of science and art, the
US
Congress enacted several copyright laws which included provisions for fair
use for citizens.  These fair use provisions state that someone who
purchases a book or a CD or movie etc. can make copies and take excerpts for
personal use, for educational purposes, for parodies, or for news reporting
and reviewing.

	3. Last year, the US Congress unanimously enacted a law supported by
the
publishing, recording, and film industries which makes it illegal to even
posses the tools to make "fair use" of books or CDs or movies you have
purchased.  These industries have a lot to gain by the passage of this law
and spend a lot of money on Congressional campaigns.

	Here's how it works.  A movie isn't put onto a DVD directly like
movies are
put onto VHS tapes.  On DVD's the movie is first encrypted or put into a
special code to prevent anyone who buys the DVD from viewing or copying the
movie in ways unsanctioned by the people who made it.  This means that
unless you buy their brand of computer software or their brand of DVD
player, you cannot VIEW the movie YOU BOUGHT, let alone copy excerpts for
educational, parody, or reporting purposes.  In order to view the movie or a
copy of the movie as you are legally allowed to do, you would have to decode
the movie first, which you aren't legally allowed to do.

	The new law that was passed makes it illegal to even have the TOOLS
to
decode the movie.  The movie industry wants it to be illegal to view DVD's
in ways they don't know about and sanction because they want to be able to
charge different prices for movies in different countries.  The codes are
set up so that a European DVD player cannot play an American movie, and so
forth.  If I were to buy a DVD of my favorite foreign cartoon from my friend
in Belgium, I wouldn't be able to view it without first decoding it.  This
practice of making it harder for customers to exercise their fair use rights
is a something movie makers have a right to.  The practice of making it
illegal for customers to exercise their fair use or to even publish how to
exercise one's fair use is not something anyone has a right to.

	This is only the beginning. Books, albums, and television broadcasts
are
all working their way into digital form, where their customers can be
crippled by this law.  Eventually, none of these things will be sold, but
only rented out pay-per-view style, and with this law, we will not be able
to get your books, music, or movies any other way.  How would you like to be
forced by law to pay a fee every time you read your favorite book or every
time you read a book to your children?

	Incidentally, the "tool" that was written to decode DVD movies was a
set of
computer instructions (like a recipe a computer can follow) which can be
written on a napkin in seven lines.  If I were to hand you this napkin, I
could be fined $500,000 and sent to jail for five years.  That is not a joke
or an exaggeration; publishing these instructions, and exposing security
flaws to the public is what the "2600 Magazine" fought a lawsuit for.

--------------------------------------------

	FREE SKLYAROV

	1. Adobe Systems, Inc. sells a product called eBook, which is a
system of
encrypted books.  You can buy one and download it into their sanctioned
reader for use.  That's it.  Any other legal rights you may have from buying
this book have been circumvented.

	2. In Moscow, a programmer and student, Dmitry Sklyarov, trying to
earn his
doctorate learned how the eBook security worked, and how it could be
disabled.  His thesis is on the subject.  Dmitry works for a company,
Elcomsoft, who up until recently was selling a program based on Dmitry's
work.  This program would allow people to decode the eBooks they had bought
and use them in "unintended" ways such as copying from them to paste into a
book report, or running them through speech-to-voice programs for the blind.

	3. Only two weeks ago, Dmitry came to the United States to give a
speech at
a Las Vegas conference about the flaws in eBook security and how it could be
made better.  Adobe Systems had heard of Dmitry's presentation at the
conference, and had tipped off Federal officals that a "dangerous criminal"
was going to enter the country.

	4. On his way home after the conference, Dmitry Sklyarov was
arrested by
the FBI and charged apparantly with working for a foreign company that
violated the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.  Sklyarov does not head the
company.  He does not sell their products.  He is merely a single worker
within the company who does the same kind of work I do at mine.  Dmitry is
presently being held without bail in a foreign country on the other side of
the world from his wife and two young daughters.

	5. Less than a week after his arrest, protests, calls for boycotts,
and a
meeting with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org) had
convinced Adobe Systems to withdraw their complaint.  Unfortunately the DMCA
is a criminal law, and the US Attorney needs no complaint to prosecute.

	6. Monday, July 30th protests began in 20 US cities and Moscow for
the
purpose of FREEING DMITRY.  Some argue that the charges are baseless.  Most
argue that the DMCA is an unfair and crippling law, and should be revised.
Some even argue that the entire American system of copyrights needs to be
rewritten to reflect not only the wishes of the publishers and movie makers,
but also the rights of the American public.  All agree that prosecuting
Dmitry Sklyarov is harmful to the nation and the international community.

--------------------------------------------
             ACT QUICKLY

Please act quickly to help free an innocent man, and save the US Government
time, money, and embarrasment.  Here is what you can do:

* Read and donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  They foot the bill
for Dmitry's and other lawsuits (http://www.eff.org)

* Join Free Dmitry protests (http://www.freesklyarov.org)

* Learn about the DMCA and write Congress to have it revised
(http://anti-dmca.org)

* Forward this email to anyone in North Carolina or the surrounding areas
and encourage them to attend Raleigh's protest ( http://badlaw.moongroup.com
[mailto:pedro_picasso at yahoo.com] )

--------------------------------------------

	Thank you for your time.  I realize there are more important
problems with
the world today, but with protests in 21 cities and widespread media
coverage, this is one difference you and I can make right now to an innocent
student and his family, and to the United States of America.

-Adrian P. Dunston
pedro_picasso at yahoo.com

__
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