Sklyarov Bail Hearing Monday

mr_don't writes: "I just saw that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has just posted an Action Alert entitled "What YOU Can Do To Help Set Dmitry Sklyarov Free" ... Around 11am on August 6, 2001, at the San Jose Federal Building, Dmitry is set to have another bail hearing in front of Magistrate Judge Edward A. Infante. Protests are planned to coincide with the hearing. I hope as many people as possible can come to the demonstration... Help the EFF pack the courtroom during the hearing." A short article in the Mercury News mentions the hearing too, as well as the half-million dollar, five-year penalty that could be imposed.

Comments

The point

[4n0nym0u53 C0w4rd]

I think it'll take a good deal of work to get the media (and thus, the public) to understand that this case is different from the typical "evil hacker" story. In general, when somebody gets arrested for some type of computer crime, we hear stories about how they "broke in" to top secret systems, intent on destroying or stealing valuable data and wreaking havoc on the poor victim. In this case, it has to be made very clear that this guy did something that was legal where he lived, then came to the US to do something legal, and was arrested. (An excellent example of both time-shifting and space-shifting if I ever saw one).

Second, it should be made very clear that the original complainant, Adobe, has stated that they don't feel he should be charged.

The third point that should be made is that this tool only works for people who have purchased the book, and it allows them to remove certain restrictions, e.g., reading their book on a different computer.

Perhaps what this movement needs is a blind person who uses the tool to enable the read-aloud function of adobe reader to work...

Skylarov being used

[tbo]

Skylarov has become an unwilling pawn in a political game. In two earlier posts, I talked about why Skylarov shouldn't be made into a posterboy for the anti-DMCA lobby. A bunch of people replied, saying that no such thing was happening, and that the protestors were just trying to get him free.

Then I see this post, moderated up to 5, Insightful, saying that we shouldn't free Skylarov early, because he's more valuable as a weapon against the DMCA if he's in jail. Don't you just love all these people are willing to sacrifice an individual in the name of "individual rights"? What a bunch of fucking hypocrites.

DMCA isn't (or shouldn't be) Skylarov's problem. He's Russian, not American, and he didn't vote for the politicians who passed DMCA. Sacrificing him to fight it is just plain wrong. Maybe, if he was American, we could justify such a sacrifice as "his duty to the country" or some such other nonsense, but this is just sickening.

To all those fighting to free Skylarov, keep up the good work. To the rest of you, maybe it's time you gave things a good long thinking over.