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Sklyarov, Bunner (DVD CCA) Hearings Thursday

Posted by timothy on from the bring-popcorn-double-header dept.

Seth Schoen writes: "On Thursday, in San Jose, CA, free speech supporters can enjoy a double-header in Federal and State courts. At 9:30 in the morning, Dmitry Sklyarov is expected to be arraigned before a U.S. Magistrate Judge, and there will be a preliminary hearing in U.S. v. Sklyarov. sf.freesklyarov.org has details on the time and location. Thursday afternoon, about a mile away, a California appellate court will hear arguments in DVD Copy Control Assn. v. Andrew Bunner -- Bunner has appealed the trial court's preliminary injunction against him. He's asked the appellate court to overturn the injunction, which forbids him to post DeCSS code pending a trial. (This is the "California trade secret" DVD/DeCSS case, separate from the New York DMCA case.)" Update: 08/21 09:27 PM EDT by michael : According to the EFF, the Sklyarov hearing has been postponed until next week.

"Sklyarov is represented by Joseph Burton; Bunner is represented by the First Amendment Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF Sklyarov/Bunner media release has time and location information for this hearing, too. Both hearings will be open to the public; please dress nicely if you attend. You can probably attend both, because the Sklyarov hearing should be over before the Bunner hearing starts. The Federal court (N.Dist.Cal.), for the Sklyarov case, is on the 5th floor, 280 South 1st Street; the State appellate court (6th App. Dist. Ct.), for the DVD CCA case, is at 333 West Santa Clara Street, Suite 1060."

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post ran an editorial knocking (if not actually blasting) the DMCA, with Sklyarov the example of what's wrong with the thing. Jerry Pournelle's column in Byte takes a slightly different tack, but raises the same troubling questions. (Thanks to fredistheking and SgtChairebourne for the links.)

6 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Jailed Under a Bad Law by GlassUser · · Score: 2, Interesting
    That's the title of the washington post article. Does ANY actual person like the DMCA? I can't ever think of anyone not spouting corporate drivel actually claiming to like the law.


    Why was there no reply button on this article?

    --
    funny munging
  2. We must not forget by friday2k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and /. and even the Washington Post are helping. There is too much at stake for the whole community, science and simply the people that this must be taken the whole way through. Protection of digital content is understandable and needs also our support. If music, videos, games are pirated all the time, at some time there will be no more music, videos or games. We all know that. But if people pointing out flaws in standards are punished it will be much worse. Science will suffer. Innovation will suffer. The industry must understand that this case is not about piracy. It is about fair use. And the work of people like Niels Ferguson or Dmitry Sklyarov might actually help the industry to find a standard that protects the owner's rights and does not restrict fair use of copyrighted material that I and everybody else out there purchased!

  3. Adobe's lawyers are quite busy! by sdo1 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This link from sf.freesklyarov.org shows that Adobe is a pretty busy company when it comes to swinging the lawyers about.

    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

    --
    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
  4. What Dimitry can do in the meantime... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Could someone please put Dimitry in touch with Adobe about their Job ID 01-0011213?

    "As a senior computer scientist at Adobe, you will help define and implement PKI-based security features for Acrobat in the areas of digital signatures and encryption."

    Looks like they got rid of the last idiot who implemented the stupid XOR algorithm. Personally, I think anyone other than Dmitry who fills this job has got the rest of the high-tech community laughing behind his or her back. :)

    Credit for finding this amusing listing goes to Rick Moen on the free-sklyarov mailing list archive.

  5. You reap what you sow.... by gnovos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For decades the dominant media-marketriod elite
    have been carefully cultivating the western mind. We have been taught that shiny, colorful, noisy things are good. We have slowly developed a powerful, salivating passion for these things. It is more important for us to buy the latest CDs, the trediest clothes, the fastest cars, at an easy 1000%-10000% markup over thier cost to produce than it is to pay the rent, or buy groceries. It is a far graver misfortune to our minds to miss one "very special" episode of Friends than it is to miss out on a national election.

    Considering all the coaxing, training, and brainwashing that they have given us, it is any wonder that we feel perfectly justified in getting out hands on that sweet, sweet intellectual property by any means?

    --
    "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
  6. Land of the free vs. the dark ages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Unfortunately the Sklyarov case is not unique. American Renaissanse has an excellent essay covering dozens of cases in which Americans, Europeans and Canadians have been jailed, by the so-called democratic governments, for exercising their right to free speech.

    A must read for any person who cares about censorship.

    Return to the dark ages