[free-sklyarov] Sample letters?

[Seth David Schoen]

I've been a bit slow on getting sample letters out to help people who
are gathering tomorrow to write their own letters.

I do plan to work on some samples today, but it would be good to
collect some from other people.

Once again, I understand that the letter-writing is to be directed at:

(1) Members of Congress, asking them to condemn Dmitry Sklyarov's arrest
    and to help reform the DMCA.  (One suggestion for WIPO treaty
    implementation, advocated by ACM, EFF, and the DFC: make it illegal
    to circumvent TPMs _in order to infringe a copyright_, much in the
    way that it may be illegal to use a weapon _in order to commit a
    crime_.  This is distinct from making it illegal to circumvent TPMs
    _for any purpose_.  In addition, "circumvention tools" should not
    be illegal in themselves; knowingly providing circumvention tools
    to help someone infringe a copyright is already "aiding and
    abetting".)

(2) Interim U.S. Attorney David Shapiro.  (One suggestion is to
    mention that foreign scientists are now afraid to visit the U.S.,
    and respected researchers have been censoring themselves.)

(3) Publishers which are members of the Association of American
    Publishers.  (I'll try to find their addresses today.  One
    suggestion is to write to your own favorite publisher, and
    explain how the DMCA is undermining the freedom of the press, which,
    as publishers know very well, is extremely important to them in
    the long term.  Perhaps some publishers have not yet realized
    that the DMCA creates serious problems for the freedom of speech
    and of the press, that -- according to some observers of Judge
    Kaplan's opinion -- it's been used to create a _whole new
    carve-out_ from first amendment protections.  When publishers
    recognize the long term risk to the first amendment at stake,
    they may realize that the AAP's position is short-sighted.)

    I would tell publishers that we appreciate their valiant efforts
    in the past to defend the first amendment, and that the AAP's
    statement -- praising the arrest of a programmer, arrested for
    what he wrote, while in the country to speak at a conference! --
    seems like a disturbing aberration in that tradition.  That's
    certainly the way it feels to me; remember that the AAP (and other
    trade groups representing copyright industries) were co-plaintiffs
    in the case which overturned the Communications Decency Act.
    Sexually explicit speech, violent speech, descriptions of how to
    build bombs: publishers know to stand up for the right to publish
    these.  We've got to explain that the right to write programs is
    at least as important as any of these.

    For those of you who are enthusiasts of pre-DMCA copyright law, it
    might be good to mention that in your letters to publishers.  I
    don't know how involved it's necessary to get; for example, I'd be
    tempted to launch into a "software DRM is snake oil -- if you
    believed in 'copy-proof on-line publishing', you've been sold a
    bridge, and one that's hurting the first amendment" discussion.
    But I think that would be more involved than necessary.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Its really terrible when FBI arrested
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/ | hacker, who visited USA with peacefull
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF) | mission -- to share his knowledge with
     http://www.freesklyarov.org/      | american nation.  (Ilya V. Vasilyev)