Slashdot Mirror
EFF Gets Meeting With Adobe
h-=-
Congratulations folks!
The pressure we all have put on Adobe has resulted in an agreement to meet with representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this Monday morning, July 23.
For that reason, EFF has decided to:
PUT THE JULY 23 PROTEST ON HOLD
Please help us act in good faith and postpone the protest until we have a chance to negotiate with Adobe.
Of course, we can always rekindle the protest if Adobe does not agree to withdraw their complaint to the US Department of Justice regarding Dmitry Sklyarov and to refuse to pursue further prosecutions under the DMCA for cases that should be prevented under fair use provisions of US copyright law.
And also, if the US Attorney's office insists on prosecuting Dmitry without a current complaint from Adobe, then we will continue protests directed at them rather than at Adobe.
If you still feel that you have to protest on Monday, you are of course free to do so. However, it may be a more effective use of our collective energies to act in a coordinated way to get Dmitry out of jail.
I am writing a media release to this effect as soon as I sent this email to you... wanted you all to know first.
Free Dmitry,
Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org
There's a world of difference between 'on hold' and 'cancelled'. Please fix the headline, Hemos. Protest also needs a 't' ;-).
DO NOT CANCEL THE PROTESTS!
What good is adobe going to do, they have 0 legal jurisdiction over getting Dmitry out of jail.
This just goes to show that Adobe is afraid of the bad press.
Adobe is going to welcome the EFF team, blow smoke up their asses for half of an hour and show them the door.
DO NOT CANCEL THE PROTEST, once you stop this momentum you will not regain it.
Maybe attention should be focused on the FBI, DOJ, and Congress for passing such a farcical law.
Just who are EFF working for anyhow?
Does anyone at EFF care to disclose just how much Adobe Donates to them anually?
anonymous hero
--
This message secured by Quadruple Rot-56 encryption technology.
Unauthorized decryption prohibited under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
*snicker*
"He" didn't sell the software anywhere. The company he works for did. Why was he arrested? Even if they had reason to arrest someone, why was he the only one arrested? Why not the company CEO who was also there?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Hi, I'm Don Marti, main contact person for the San Jose event.
We will be meeting as planned at the snake sculpture, in downtown San Jose at the corner of S. Market St. and W. San Carlos St., at 11:00 AM.
From there we can march on Adobe or go home as the situation requires.
I would put a Sun Tsu quote here but I am pretty busy right about now.
Most of us feel that this is proof positive that the effectiveness of the protests is working, and that they must continue to operate under a deadline of Monday.
EFF folks were quoted as saying that (paraphrased) "Adobe couldn't get the right people in the room" over the weekend. There's nowhere on the planet they couldn't get the right people into the room if they wanted to, so they obviously value "something else" (whether its a business deal or someone's tee-time) more than they value solving this dilemma they're in.
Nothing stops until that guy is on a jet in international airspace departing the US a free man.
The irony -- to DEPART the US to become a Free Man. *sigh*
I would say that Slashdot just made a mistake. But... There's another POV:
/. their voice.
/. made a slight mistake in word usage (given their overall poor grammar, this is no surprise). But it can also be viewed as one member of one of the parts of the movement trying to cool down some hot heads. Unfortunately, rather than people listening to protesters, they are beating the shit out of them, and making efforts to conduct their meetings and so forth without an opportunity for protest at all. (The virtual WTO summit ideas, ie)
Slashdot and EFF are the 'legitimate' and publicly accepted arms of the lunatic fringe. The people organizing the protest are the armed combatants and the nuts who give the EFF and
I might be looking at getting a serious down-modding, but it seems similar to the Sin Fein (sorry for butchering the spelling) and the IRA. Or similar splits amongst various Muslim groups.
One group comes to the table and talks. The other group beats on the windows and burns cars outside.
I find myself a fence-sitter. I was prepared to take off of work Monday had their been a protest in Wash. DC or Richmond, but I might very well have backed down.
My real concern is that the Monday protest would have likely gathered numbers due to the emotions involved. By delaying it, even if only for a few days, emotions will cool (especially other fencesitters, as well as those in the totally rational front) and the turnout will likely be less. The upshot is that more time=more chance to get the word out.
So, without playing devil's advocate: I think
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
He's a frigging citizen of another country, and the software he wrote is not bound by the DMCA. IANAL, but it seems to me that the FBI has gotten themselves in a ton of hot water.
My question is, why hasn't the Russian Consulate raised a stink about this? Or, have they, and the DOJ is keeping it all hush hush?
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
I do not agree with Will's reasoning, but here is additional background information he supplied on the situation:
Adobe only agreed to meet with us if we would put the Monday, July 23 protest on hold.
We would like to believe that Adobe will be negotiating in earnest and it is not EFF's style to engage in punitive protests when there is hope of a negotiated solution.
If some folks go ahead and protest and antagonize Adobe, that may escalate the situation, preclude Adobe withdrawing their complaint, and keep Dmitry in jail.
I think should treat this as a partial victory... we have succeeded in getting to the table in a big way with Adobe! Let's use that leverage to get some concrete action. And if they don't budge, we can still protest. Those who offered the favors once hopefully did so because we have an important cause here, and will likely do so again.
I am glad to hear everyone's comments about this and look forward to working together to get Dmitry out of jail and end further unfair DMCA prosecutions.
Free Dmitry,
Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org
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!
[
While it may seem as if Adobe is folding, don't expect it. The DMCA is the law of the land, and Adobe would be foolish not to do exploit it as best they can.
If you want the DMCA gone, write your congressman, practice civil disobedience, and for Martin Luther King's sake, *take a case to court!*
The GPL survives in legal limbo because it's never been tested in court--and this is because those would benefit most from going to court (those who's work revolves around the GPL) would rather settle than risk legal correction.
Don't expect the same thing to work with the DMCA. Heck, don't expect anything short of a diplomatic incident to change the FBI's mind... they're officers of the law, who's job it is to gather cases against those who break the law.
(Yes, sometimes the FBI investigates innocents... but it happens. I've been investigated, you've probably been investigated... you might even have been arrested for a crime you didn't commit. Guess what? That's how the law works.)
Remember: those who want the GPL ambiguous and the DMCA unrepealed have deep pockets, and aren't afraid of the cost of a lawsuit. If we want these these things changed, we need to go to court.
The meeting scheduled for tonight regarding the denver protest is still on. This page has the details
July 23 is 3 more days that Dimitry will have stay in jail. Wouldn't it make sense to continue to pressure Adobe by bringing the case to light during that time? Take away one person's freedom, smear the name of the offending company.
Sounds fair to me.
Dancin Santa
From one of my mailing lists...
National Security and Individual Freedoms: How the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) Threatens Both.
The article is here."
A good read, particularly after the crap Adobe is pulling with poor Dmitry.