[free-sklyarov] Adobe wipes their hands clean of Skylarov

[Karsten M. Self]

on Wed, Sep 05, 2001 at 12:54:22PM +0200, David Haworth (david.haworth at altavista.net) wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 05, 2001 at 06:29:55AM -0400, Robloch at aol.com wrote:
> > Now that they have explained why they are not responsible, I'm sure everyone 
> > will accept their case and won't blame them in any respect. NOT.
> > 
> > http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=3451
> 
> I have a few questions that perhaps someone with a bit of US-centric
> knowledge can answer (being a European, I know very little about
> US legal affairs apart from what gets brought to my attention).

> 5. Does the old chestnut "I refuse to give evidence on the grounds
> that I might incriminate myself" actually exist as a right, or is
> it just something from the movies?

Not in civil cases, such as, perhaps, a wrongful imprisonment,
misleading advertising, or class action harm suit (on the part of
content providers mislead by advertising claims) against eBook
publishers, and/or the shill organizations supporting them and/or taking
heat for them:  SPA, SIAA, RIAA.

In this case, the company can be compelled to testify, and large amounts
of internal documentation and communications become discoverable.

The Fifth Amendment protections against self-incriminating testimony
only apply to criminal law.  This is a triple-edged sword:  useful for
the plaintif, painful for the defendant, and often impacting both rights
and balance of power between individuals and corporations.

> My line of reasoning is that if Adobe were threatened with a suit for
> false advertising, they might be reluctant to testify in the Sklyarov
> case on grounds that they might incriminate themselves.  Without
> Adobe's testimony, the DoJ's case would surely fall apart in their own
> hands.

Cf:  discovery and testimony gathered in DoJ v. Microsoft.

IANAL, this is not legal advice.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>          http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?             There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/               http://www.kuro5hin.org
   Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA!    http://www.freesklyarov.org
Geek for Hire                        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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