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Actualy, I think that this is pretty well taken care of. Dmitri is represented by Joseph Burton, a partner at the firm of Duane, Morris, and Heckscher. Mr. Burton is a former federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California where the case is being tried.

However, sending money to Dmitri's legal defense fund would definitely be in order. Good attorneys like Mr. Burton don't come cheap.

Yes...have a look at sf.freesklyarov.org.

I see two other Adobe Systems, Inc. cases on there plus the Skylarov case (which Adobe isn't officially involved in, but it was their actions that brought about the arrest.

-S

how is simple information illegal

I dunno.. but it is. I keep asking myself the same question.

Dmitry is a russian, but currently he can't leave Northern California. He's on bail. A $50,000 bond portrays him as a bad-ass criminal. Obviously, doing his job was a bad excuse. They didn't arrest his boss though.

- Steeltoe

Fix your .sig dude. It's spelled sklyarov, not skylyarov.

Contact somebody at the SF Bay Area Free Dmitry site. They have a bunch of protest pictures up, and I'm sure they'd be glad to add more.

Protests are planned in Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis in addition to the San Jose protest detailed in the EFF's press release. More details at freesklyarov.org (of course!).

Protests are planned in Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis in addition to the San Jose protest detailed in the EFF's press release. More details at freesklyarov.org (of course!).

Protests are planned in Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis in addition to the San Jose protest detailed in the EFF's press release. More details at freesklyarov.org (of course!).

Protests are planned in Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis in addition to the San Jose protest detailed in the EFF's press release. More details at freesklyarov.org (of course!).

The court of public opinion still matters, though courts and in particular this government will do as they please.

I hope that every Slashdot reader also follows the national and regional coverage of this case, and will at least take a moment to write a short letter to their representatives. We don't have a great many tools. However, I was able to explain what's wrong the DMCA to my sister in law in about 2 minutes by giving her some examples of what's around the corner for everyone:
* electronic books that you can't move from your desktop computer to your laptop
* electronic books that blind people can't connect to braille readers or speech devices, unless the book's publisher gives permission (most do not)
* CD's and downloaded music that you couldn't take from home to your car or MP3 player
* electronic books that can't be loaned by a library
* and on and on

Full coverage and portals to all sorts of info will be here until Dmitry is free and home with his family:

http://freesklyarov.org
http://freedmitry.org

Jon asks "why [Dmitry] should go free" and not why the DMCA is bad law, so I will restrict my comments to this limited question, and target them towards the US policymakers who have the power NOW to change the government's course.

Dmitry was arrested under the provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). It has been argued that Dmitry did not violate this law - but I will not make that argument; assume instead that he did. It has also been argued that the DMCA (or part of it) is bad law - but I will not make that argument either. Instead, I will argue that even granted these points, Dmitry should go free.

To make this argument I assert, first, that the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA - those that Dmitry is accused of violating - are controversial law. Specifically, these provisions of the law may be unconstitutional. As evidence I offer up, first, Constitutional Law Professor Lawrence Lessig's Op-Ed piece in the New York Times; and second, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's essay on their web site. Note that one does not have to agree with all or even most of these arguments to accept that the law is controversial - one merely has to accept that some of these arguments are reasonable.

Second, I assert that the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, and particularly their criminal remedies, are currently untested law. This point is almost self-evident, as nearly every media story about the case has referred to its ground-breaking nature. It suffices merely to point out that in addition (1) the two other cases brought under the DMCA, DeCSS (2600 magazine) and SDMI (Prof. Edward Felten) are civil actions; and (2) Neither of those cases are yet resolved in the courts.

Finally, I assert that it is not in the US government's interest to make Dmitry Sklyarov the test case for these controversial, untested provisions of the DMCA. There are several reasons for this. First, Dmitry is a working graduate student and not clearly either criminally responsible for the software or wealthy because of it; therefore he is a sympathetic defendant for judge or jury. Second, the chief complainant in the case, Adobe, has recommended dropping the charges. Third, he is a foreign national who is accused of breaking this controversial, untested American law while in his home country, which adds needless complexity (and diplomatic ramifications) to the case, and threatens to deprive the US of the expertise of foreign programmers (c.f. Alan Cox).

Rather than pursue the risky brute-force prosecution of Dmitry Sklyarov, then, US policymakers should tell the FBI to pick on someone their own size - that is, a US citizen who has clearly broken these provisions of the law while on American soil.

Free Dmitry Sklyarov!

-Renard

First of all, I agree that you should have that right. And if you feel strongly about it, I hope you'll join us in the streets to tell the world about it.

Unfortunately, here's the problem with eBooks: they can't ever be encrypted effectively, because your adversary (formerly called your "customer") always has the key. It almost doesn't matter whether Adobe uses ROT-13 or triple-DES, because they have to give you both the algorithm and the key for you to be able to do anything at all with the eBook. All they can do is to obfuscate the software to make it difficult to figure out what they've already given you. However, experience shows that there will always be a sufficiently talented and motivated individual who figures it out. The current "solution" to this problem is to imprison those people.

I think that one point that might save us was raised by Brad Templeton: the main problem with commercial eBook publishing isn't piracy, it's that no one wants to read eBooks! Publishers might eventually get the hint that they have to make their products maximally useful rather than trying to lock them up tightly.

Standing up to these megalomanaics is worthy of a movie in and of itself, but if we don't, we could all find ourselves against the powerful systems, both legal and computer, of the MIAA and its allies.

Besides, do you really want to support these people in their quest to make Tron 2.0, which has "An ambitious hacker transports himself into cyberspace to pull off the ultimate hack." for a tagline? Even if nothing else written here convinces you to boycott the release of Tron on DVD, that almost certainly should. Yuck, awful -- just what we need, another bad "hacker flick" (almost certainly what's intended, given today's climate).

How about if a couple thousand people each purchase 100 advertisements on a search engine. When someone searches for "Adobe" or "Mueller", they would see an ad that brings them to www.freesklyarov.org.

Dmitry Skylarov
North Las Vegas Dept. of Detention/Correction
2222 Constitution Way
North Las Vegas, NV 89030

Actually, http://boston.freesklyarov.org/mirror/freesklyarov .org is more up-to-date. Use that mirror instead.

Hey, I live in Europe too, and I used their feedback form to submit them a comment. Given the US' position in the Western World, I don't consider it innapropriate to participate in US politics that way. Indeed, those US laws often find their ways into Europena legislation via international treaties. We better voice our opinion before these laws become binding for us too.

In case anybody's interested here's what I sent them:

Recently Dmitri Sklyarov, a Russian programmer was arrested while visiting the US for a conference. He is still being held without bail in Las Vegas. His crime: he did a presentation which Adobe ( http://www.adobe.com) felt was against their corporate interests. You can read more about it on http://www.freesklyarov.org. Although Adobe has withdrawn their complaint that triggered Mr Sklyarov's arrest (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressre leases/200107/20010723dcma.html), probably due to the PR backlash, he is still in prison!

What is your stand on this affair?

Direct links to boston, LA, and seattle information are at boston.freesklyarov.org, la.freesklyarov.org, and seattle.freesklyarov.orb.

Protests are also scheduled in NY and LA. There's interest in the UK as well, see ntk.net for more details.

Direct links to boston, LA, and seattle information are at boston.freesklyarov.org, la.freesklyarov.org, and seattle.freesklyarov.orb.

Protests are also scheduled in NY and LA. There's interest in the UK as well, see ntk.net for more details.

Direct links to boston, LA, and seattle information are at boston.freesklyarov.org, la.freesklyarov.org, and seattle.freesklyarov.orb.

Protests are also scheduled in NY and LA. There's interest in the UK as well, see ntk.net for more details.

Boston write-up and pictures, Wired article on the protests, On-line petition, IDG story, CNN copy of the original Reuters story (better late than never!), ironic page on the AAP website (the AAP issued a press release defending Adobe and the DMCA).

Although we are all pleased by the actions of Adobe and the EFF today, there will nevertheless be a protest event in Champaign-Urbana, IL on Wednesday. We'll meet on the Quad in front of the Illini Union from 11:00 until 1:00. Our focus will be to educate the University community on the problems with the DMCA. If Dmitry is still in jail, we will focus on his plight as well (I hope not!). If you're can be there, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY.

Thanks!

Free Dmitry Sklyarov!

I missed the protest, but I did get a chance to put up a bunch of posters. Do what you can to help.

--

All the info here. And of course, visit the main page for information about all the other cities.

All the info here. And of course, visit the main page for information about all the other cities.

See http://freesklyarov.org/boston for more info. Many other groups will still be protesting on Monday, as well. It's rather irresponsible of Slashdot to infer that the game's over!

The Boston protest will happen at high noon, downtown Boston. We're still working on the exact place. There's a mailing list set up for all those interested: send mail to dmitry-boston-subscribe@lm.lcs.mit.edu with the word "subscribe" in the subject or body to join. Archives are at http://lm.lcs.mit.edu/~cananian/hypermail/dmitry-b oston/. See http://freesklyarov.org/boston for latest news.