[free-sklyarov] [re:] Sample letters?

[Will Janoschka]

on Fri, 7 Sep 2001 11:25:01 Seth David Schoen schoen at loyalty.org said:

> 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".)

   Seth, I do not think this will help Dmitry at all.
      1) This gives gives credibility to the muli-nationals that came up
         with the TRIPS agreement.  If TRIPS means violating the
         constitution, then TRIPS is illegal until an amendment is in place.
      2) TPMs?  I guess you mean "Effective technological measures that
         protect a right on a copyright owner".  The use of an acronym gives
         the idea that someone understands the long buzzwords that currently
         have no literal or legal meaning whatsoever.
      3) Congress could free Dmitry in less than a week and change no laws
         at all.
      4) After Dmitry is free, then congress needs to again be reminded that
         all rights, including copyright come from the people, not law.  
         Property rights come from the fact that most people believe in them,
         and law only takes care of the few non-believers.  If the people
         believed copyright was anything except a ripoff for some large
         corporations, all of title 17 could be condensed to a few pages.
            -will-