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"An open file format specification, PDF is available to anyone who wants to develop tools to create, view, or manipulate PDF documents."

How soon we all forget.... Does noone ? Sure it was the DOJ who pursued the case, but it was Adobe who offered him up.

DMCA is a tangle. Officers of the court decide what they think the law states.

It is all in the eye of the beholder:

Buisness Week And: Sklyarov

Although they will still arrest you and invoke the DMCA because maybe you design something that facilitates Adobe ebook and Adobe Acrobat Reader interoperability ;)

I dunno.

I suppose you can ask Dmitry

5. Using a toothpick to undermine the foundations of the Adobe headquarters.

People have to start somewhere to express their outrage at the corporation that helped put Dmitry Skylarov in jail. Fighting the DMCA is also very important, but Adobe should not be forgotten because they chose to leverage the DMCA against Skylarov. Fortunately a jury didn't see things Adobe's way.

A troll got owned. Big fucking deal. Stop the presses.

A pirate got busted. Big deal. Stop the presses.

Same argument innit...,/P>

Both the linked article and the /. story has it wrong.

If you doubt me compare this with this.

I just think the error shouldn't be allowed to propagate.
Besides, I woke up this morning and found out I had mutated into a spelling nazi. I just hate it when that happens...

I don't really like cinemas, and its just giving money to a cartel. I'll wait for the the DVD. I think in the meantime I'll just get the soundtrack, and make do with the book. Is it available in Adobe E-book format?

It's not illegal just to make a copy of something digital. It is, however, illegal (by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, aka DMCA) to circumvent any digital copy prevention system, even for fair use purposes*. This means that if you buy a CD (one with no copy protection), you can legally make a backup for your own purposes. But if you buy a copy-protected pseudo-CD and use a circumvention device to make a backup copy, you are breaking the law. This essentially means that content producers get to limit your use of their product arbitrarily, even when it falls under fair use. As far as time shifting goes, the DTV broadcast flag could be considered a copy-protection system under the DMCA, so in a few years using your HDTiVo to time-shift certain programs very well could be illegal. Sucks, doesn't it?

All of the above applies in the United States only (unless you happen to be a certain Russian programmer). I have no clue what laws other countries have about this kind of stuff.

* There is a provision for fair use in the DMCA, but it has never (?) been invoked and probably has no real effect. This has been discussed elsewhere in this thread.

Sklyarov v. Skylarov
69800 - 3250

Sklyarov wins!

Besides, you should note the difference between thisand this

No one can spell his name.

Check out this news article where his name is spelled two different ways throughout the article.

Between that and "Dmitri" littered all over the place, it's probable that his name is encrypted and subject to DMCA protection (-;

ATI is a Canadian company, are they liable under UCITA?

Dmitry Sklyarov is a Russian guy. Is he liable under the DMCA?

-Waldo Jaquith

You've been labeled a troll and shunned. Ha ha!

Here's an entire web site that'll explain things.

...like our global friends, we don't acknowledge the DMCA. It's just an American thing is it not?

One would think so. But we probably should ask Dmitry Sklyarov for his opinion first.

I'm guessing this dude didn't have US customers so that's why the DMCA doesn't apply? I don't know if Canadian law has something similar... Either way, I don't believe the mod chips, or even installing them for a fee should be (or is?) illegal. There are laws in existance already that protect copyright and IP. Laws like the DMCA are unneccessary and interfere with our (constitutional - for Americans, God given for everyone else) rights.

Actually, Italian law is what makes it legally authorized access. Legally, they could have forced him to do it himself, holding him in prison indefinitely, in contempt of court. He should be thankful they saved him the keystrokes.
What I found funniest was the comment "We live in a world where we communicate worldwide and we travel worldwide," Farber said. "If I violate some Australian law and then land in Sydney, do they throw me in jail?".
's/ I / Dmytry Skylarov /^Js/Australian/American/^Js/Sydney/Las Vegas/'
...If we're going to dish it out, perhaps we should be prepared also to take it?

"We live in a world where we communicate worldwide and we travel worldwide," Farber said. "If I violate some Australian law and then land in Sydney, do they throw me in jail?"

Pray you never find out the hard way.

Since when did legal studies become the main concern for computer afficianados[sic]?

I was thinking just the opposite: When was it reasonable to be ignorant of the laws that control what you can do with a computer? When was it a good idea to not know about the terms of widely-used Free Software licenses? Maybe the computer afficionados you know would be better off knowing what copyright law says and what penalties lie in wait for them if they violate someone's copyright. Being ignorant of the DMCA is particularly unwise in the USA, just ask Dmitry Sklyarov about the pleasures of being held in jail away from home.

I think Microsoft hacked into FSF's servers to scare people away from open-source.

Funny. I think the FSF put that up with the mindset of helping people to better understand the GNU GPL and GNU LGPL, and to increase the number of volunteers helping them with license issues (as they ask for if you answer all the questions correctly). Also, the FSF doesn't do "open-source" they do Free Software. There's a big difference.

These legalisms are paralyzing to a fertile, inquisitive mind.

These legalisms are just another part of life to learn about, organize protests around, and work within. A mind will not stay "fertile" if it is ignorant of the rules of society. It is shameful, not helpful, to remain ignorant of the law.

How come the large software companies get away with stealing stuff all the time but when a little Russian company like Elcomsoft does something people go ape shit and try to throw them in prison. If someone like Microsoft would have done something similar to this (they have) they would have just gotten a slap on the wrist (a fine...meaningless to a rich software company). You don't see anyone trying to throw Bill in prison like they did to Dmitry Sklyarov

You can't actually be arested over IP (for now at least).

there aren't any Village People songs about the DMCA

Really?

And Jail Time! heh. Give us a break. You can't be put in jail for writing good software.

Oh really?

That's possible, but I don't really think so. @stake obviously has roots in the non-corporate security community, so we know that they're aware of the benefits of disclosure. It is possible that they are angling for an RFC as a means of protecting amature security researchers who want to disclose what they find without suffering the fate of Dimitry Sklyarov. After that debacle, many people stopped disclosing anything because it was obvious that the DMCA would be used to make their lives miserable if they annoyed the companies too badly. A formal RFC that is approved by the IETF would go a long way towards discouraging prosecutors from bringing charges against researchers. ("Members of the jury, how can my client's actions be construed as a crime? He was only following the established procedures laid out by the IETF....")

The problem with drafting an RFC is that not all bugs are created equal, and that usually doesn't get reflected in a standards document. If a popular server application has a local exploit in the installation/registration process, you might want to treat that differently than if the same server application has a remote exploit caused by an inability to handle malformed requests. Why? The first one will affect sites for a brief period of time while the sysadmin installs some software. The second example affects any site running the software, thus having the ability to impact many more people. I'd be much more likely to give the software manufacturer more time to fix a remote exploit...

Is someone finally paying attention to the fact that Microsoft's OEM license agreements don't allow vendors to install multiple operating systems? Amazing!

I doubt the courts will do anything about it though; they seem willing enough to uphold trivial patents and ROT13 encryption under the Disney Millenium Copyright Act. But hey, it's worth a shot... Go Be!
---

This sounds to be like you are not allowed to let anyone other than yourself use the CD in any way. If you are playing the CD yourself, and someone else walks into the room and hears it, does that count?

No, I think it's more like, "If you distribute a decoder/ripper, make a t-shirt out of it, or come up with some way around copy-protected technology with minimal features so that people with disabilities can use it. And god forbid you encourage someone to do those things! (oh wait, that's not the right link - here it is)

I wonder if Slashdot can legally be held liable for people who post stuff like this, "encouraging" us to "reproduce" the "Content". Since when did music become "Content" with a capital C?

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Ghandi

Does anyone have personal, practical experience of being threatened by foreign governments or government bodies for material put up on the Net?

Cheers...

We wouldn't just love to - we have. Remember Dimitry? He broke an American law in Russia, and still somehow got a free trip to Club Fed.

Adobe still needs to be punished for instigating the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov. He's now free, but Adobe never paid his legal costs and still supports the vile DMCA. Is there any way to support Gimp development financially? Are there other free software applications looking for financial support that offer viable alternatives to Adobe's core revenue-generating applications?

New to Slashdot, eh? Here is some basic information regarding the case.

Reasons:

1. To differentiate between "author" and "person who runs into a crowded theatre and yells "Fire!"
2. Journalism n.
   
   1. The occupation of gathering, writing, editing, and publishing or broadcasting news
   2. newspapers and magazines; the press
   3. a course of study for a career in journalism
   4. Material written for a newspaper or a magazine
   5. Writing marked by a popular slant

More often than not (IMHO) journalists tend to be those people who write the stories that piss off large corporations. Hence, the court was reiterating that the protections of the first amendment extended to the journalist, regardless of the medium of publication.

Yes, I agree, there are people who have had their rights violated, lest we forget about Dmitry Sklyarov, but that is not the point of the case.

Or maybe I'm just overreacting to a poignant question.

What about the US government?

The Super Bridge documentary contained an excellent quote:

JOE LEACH: Anyone can build a bridge that will carry a given loading. But if you look at the way that some of those of us in construction look at it, it takes a real craftsman to build a bridge that will, that will just barely carry it.

In software, the opposite seems true. Almost anyone can write a program that will just barely perform a given task. It takes a real craftsman to write a program that will handle the task reliably and efficiently, and lend itself to modification to handle related tasks.

The barriers to practice each craft and the consequences of doing them badly are hardly comparable. A bridge about to fail would be condemned immediately, but if you tried to stop someone selling software that didn't work you'd be sued or jailed.
There is a cost analogy though. Just as a perfect bridge would be unaffordable to construct, so would be a perfect program. Unless there were some magical source of volunteer labor, donated materials, and expert advice.

Tell that to this guy!

Stand on a stage and tell someone how I cracked their software?? Some people have really short memories. Didn't some Russian guy just get busted for that??

Given the new attempts to hardwire copyright enforcement system in the SSSCA, the cynical attempts of the copyright cops to link piracy to September 11th and the continuing jihad against file-sharing systems, it is clear that unless serious political opposition is mounted the infotainment cartel will continue to press their advantage.

Some recent events give reason for optimism.

Firstly the 11th circuit result in the Wind Done Gone case put the use of copyright as a means of censorship right back into the jurisprudence. The opinion is worth reading.

We are still waiting for the result of Universal v Reimerdes (Eric Corley/2600/deCSS)on appeal, given that two of the three arguments made in May were essentially first amendment claims, the 11th circuit decision comes at just the right time.

The Sklyarov case shows just how dangerous this can all be. Traditionally, the threat of an injunction might have been a force to chill some speech, but criminal liability under the DMCA will silence a helluva lot more.

This conference will be an opportunity for those of us at the wrong end of 'campaign finance' to get a strategy together. Rather than bleating on about the industry, it's about positive arguments in support of the public domain and for the commons (and exploring the difference between the two - think GPL). That means expressive freedom, autonomy and open systems.

Time for some intellectual self-defense training my friends.

Benkler's paper is great.

While there is a lower class I am of it, while there is a criminal class I am of it, while there is a soul in prison I am not free.

from Passos' The 42nd Parallel

We already have plenty of laws to land computer criminals in jail, and many have already been convicted and are currently serving time.

Some would say the laws we already have in place to do this are too harsh.
Exhibits:
Number one
Number two
Number three
Number four

~z

Wait until they really prosecute somebody under the DMCA.

Wait's over.

Ashcroft distorted the record of Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White and misled his Senate colleagues in order to sabotage White's nomination to a federal district court

He has opposed legislation designed to end workplace discrimination (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) and to protect vulnerable groups of Americans against hate crimes (the Hate Crimes Prevention Act). He voted to weaken a federal law that helps protect minority communities against "redlining" by banks and other financial institutions.

He voted to roll back clean water protections and introduced legislation to undercut efforts to limit emissions of man-made greenhouse gases.

He has praised the far right magazine Southern Partisan, a neo-Confederate publication that promotes the view, among others, that slavery was beneficial to the slaves.

In just six years in the Senate he introduced or sponsored no fewer than seven different attempted amendments to the Constitution. In 1996 he proposed a radical amendment that would have made it much easier to amend the Constitution, opening the way for disastrous political and ideological mischief.

He voted to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts

Can anyone explain why this guy gets to be attourney general ?

even more

"Only In America" gets a whole new meaning

Getting arrested when you did nothing wrong ? Jep

Getting executed when you did nothing wrong ? jep

Rich kids getting of cheap ? duh

Why is the ACLU busy defending pornographers while Sklyarov rots in jail for a speech crime? Is it because most of their funding comes from Hollywood?

And if so, what does that say about Hollywood and its relationship with pornography?

Just a thought.

How is the validation of an individual's identity ensuring his sanity on a flight? If I carry this card, and prove that I am indeed the holder of the thumb and body which the card indicates, what is stopping me from running into the cabin of the plane with a fork, and declaring the plane in the name of Homer Simpson? Nothing.

Stop trying to fill your pockets, Larry, at the expense of the very same freedoms which made you rich.

We have Microsoft trying to pull everyone's personal credit information into Passport and .NET, so they can control where you go, when, and how you get there, and we have Oracle, trying to capture and store and "manage" your very identity. I don't think so.

We also have the DMCA, the SSSCA, backdoored "encryption" (anything with more than one keyholder is not encryption), the RIAA, MPAA, gps tracking devices in rental cars, cameras at every intersection, Dmitry Sklyarov vs. US/Adobe, and traffic tickets being sent in the mail for infractions you were never stopped for.

How is this giving me liberty again?

What people in our government fail to see is that the collection of these events, coupled with those who are trying to restrict stem cell research, our encryption, our liberties, and now, in a very delicate potential time of war, issuing lethal foreign policies. People are leaving this country, and taking off for other places where the opportunities may not be as vast, but the freedoms certainly are.

I'm very close to taking off as well, before the borders are closed, and I have to show my passport, fingerprint, and biometric validation, along with government approval to leave this country, and I'm taking all of my loved ones with me.

Because it is apples and oranges even if the non-techies can't understand that. DoS attacking major sites is illegal for good reason and should be punished. The acts of this week show this. The internet was some of our only sources of good information and images of what was happening in New York and anything that would disrupt that is wrong.

Dmitry is accused of going against the DMCA which most here would agree is seriously flawed. While the intent of the DMCA is good, to protect copyrighted works (no flame wars on that, I understand not everyone agrees with this), I think we all understand that it's execution is too broad. Check here for more information.

Fundamentaly what Dmitry did is not wrong and what Mafiaboy hackerpants did is.

Make that really huge American companies.
Anyone who messes with them is obviously some sort of evil, communist, hippie anarchist hacker bent on economic terrorism! And I bet they drown puppies and stomp on flowers, too! But don't worry, your friends at AOL/Time Warner/Microsoft/AT&T/Sprint/Verizon/Hewlett Packard Bell will save you!

How about anti-dcma.org? The freesklyarov.org website (protests today btw, check it out) has a whole page of articles about the DMCA, including statements from Rep. Rick Boucher, and Brad Templeton (head of the EFF).

How about anti-dcma.org? The freesklyarov.org website (protests today btw, check it out) has a whole page of articles about the DMCA, including statements from Rep. Rick Boucher, and Brad Templeton (head of the EFF).

How about anti-dcma.org? The freesklyarov.org website (protests today btw, check it out) has a whole page of articles about the DMCA, including statements from Rep. Rick Boucher, and Brad Templeton (head of the EFF).

Protests are generally expected to last several hours (save police intervention). If they don't, then the organizers have failed at their jobs.

Is this expectation written into a protestors guide to good protests or something? Instead of blaming the organizers for a poorly organized protest why don't you make your own signs and do some of the organizing yourself. DIY.

The rally in SF should be fairly large seeing that the Linux world expo is in town.

Yeah, you won't find a lot, considering the guy's name is Skylarov...

It seems that this site has been taken down. Looks like people are starting to lose interest in this case just as people lost interest in the DVD cracking software. The DMCA seems like is has been very effective at removing copyright threats from the picture.

We're rallying in Boston on Thursday the 30th, the day of the arraignment. The protest is happening in Copley Square in front of the Boston Public Library, at noon. We're hoping for our biggest turnout since the first protest right after Dmitry's arrest. For more information see boston.freesklyarov.org.