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Sklyarov, Bunner (DVD CCA) Hearings Thursday

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. Re:We must not forget by gnovos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If music, videos, games are pirated all the time, at some time there will be no more music, videos or games.

    Do you really think that? Are you saying that there are no artists who enjoy playing music just for fun? Are there no writers who write stories becuase they love making worlds come to life? No game designers who just want to create some fun and/or bragging right for thier friends?

    Honestly, I think the absolute best possble thing for the creative fields would be if the corporate element just vanished. Sure you wouldn't see nationally-known artists making millions in front of 50,000 seat auditoriums, but is that how you want to appreciate music?

    I would seriously prefer local groups, making realistic money (money like a school teacher would make), playing good, interesting, original music to the current sludge that comes out of the entertainment machine.

    Fame and money is not a right. It is a strange abboration that somehow grew out of the machine-like corperate quest for money. Just look around at the real world. You don't see world-renound lecturers shouting out scathing political commentaries to hords of screaming fans who paid $139 for a seat. You don't see scientists mobbed by teenagers when they step out of thier stretched limos.

    It would not be a terrible thing is the score was evened out a little.

    --
    "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
  2. 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!"
  3. The Anti-dmca Index by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The most recent version of this document can be found here:
    http://www.anti-dmca.org/dmca-index.html
    ________________________________________________ __ _________

    1. Amount Cornell University Library pays for subscription to "Journal of Applied Polymer Science": $12,495.00

    2. Amount charged to University Libraries for subscription to "Journal of Economic Studies": $13.40/page

    3. Number of people who find the $13.40 per page ironic: 3 out of 4

    4. Number of Project Gutenberg Etexts converted by voluteers: 3,551

    5. Current "Cost" per Etext based on 3,481 texts: $2.87 per text

    6. Number of Scientists worldwide boycotting Corporate Science Journals beginning September 2001: 26,000

    7. Number of college and research institutions "Declaring Independence" by publishing themselves: 200

    8. Number of days DMCA arrestee Dmitry Sklyarov spent in jail: 13

    9. Number of jails he spent them in: 4

    10. Amount charged to taxpayers for those 13 days: $4,000

    11. Window of time Microsoft and the American Association of Publishers (AAP) can engage in
    their cooperative Internet surveillance program: 24x7x365

    12. Number of AAP members who apparently support the Internet surveillance program: 250

    13. Number of "companies" which control the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA): 4

    14. Number of Executive Directors who appear to control the DVD Copy Control Association: 1

    15. Amount one company charges for eBook encryption security: $3,000

    16. Number of letters one must rotate the alphabet to decrypt that book: 13 (ROT-13)

    17. Amount recovered in recent "software raid" conducted by BSA.org against Minneapolis Company: $260,000

    18. Number of disgruntled employees who may report you to the BSA resulting in a "software raid.": 1

    19. Number of Irish software companies currently being sued by BSA.org: 7

    20. Companies BSA represents in those cases: Adobe, Autodesk, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec

    21. Number of cities included in July 2001 BSA "Truce" Campaign: 5

    22. Number of states which experienced Raids conducted by FBI on July 24 commended by BSA: 9

    23. Number of proported jobs lost from software piracy in study conducted by BSA.org: 109,000

    24. Amount an eBook customer may be fined for a backup not permited by the Publisher: $250,000

    25. Amount of time that customer might spend in jail: 5 years

    26. Number of restrictions placed on "Alice in Wonderland" (public domain) eBook: 5

    27. Maximum penalty for reading "Alice in Wonderland" aloud (possible DMCA violation): 5 years jail

    28. Maximum penalty for having a "pirate" copy of "Planet of the Apes": 10 years jail/$2M fine

    29. Average sentence for commiting Rape: 5 years

    ________________________________________________ __ _______________________________

    Information provided by anti-dmca.org
    ________________________________________________ __ _______________________________

    Please feel free to email, post, print, etc. this information.

    Additions, contributions and comments are welcome here:
    http://www.anti-dmca.org/dmca-index.html

    This index actually contains a scrambled (stenanographically hidden) version of
    Britney Spear's new single. However, we can't find the key so we're not quite
    sure it's there either.

    Harper's Interactive Index
    http://harpers.org/harpers-index/

    ________________________________________________ __ ________________________________

    Sources

    1. http://www.englib.cornell.edu/displays/stickershoc k/car.htm
    http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~kirby/journals.html# App1
    2. http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/jppage.htm
    3. Quick and simple poll
    4. http://promo.net/pg/nl/0105.html
    5. http://promo.net/pg/nl/0105.html
    6. http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/
    http://www.genomeweb.com/articles/view-article.asp ?Article=200172219199
    7. http://www.arl.org/sparc/DI/
    http://www.createchange.org/
    8. http://www.fresklyarov.org
    9. http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/08/10/12241.htm l
    10. Some multiplication
    11. http://www.microsoft.com/ebooks/das/antipiracy.asp
    12. http://www.microsoft.com/ebooks/das/antipiracy.asp
    13. http://www.lemuria.org/decss/hal2001.html
    14. http://www.lemuria.org/decss/hal2001.html
    15. http://www.download.ru/defcon.ppt
    16. http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/rot13/
    17. http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases//2001-08 -06.680.phtml
    18. http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011 ,2799089,00.html
    19. http://www.bsa.org/ireland/press/newsreleases//200 1-08-02.682.phtml
    20. http://www.bsa.org/ireland/press/newsreleases//200 1-08-02.682.phtml
    21. http://www.bsatruce.com/us/indexjuly2001.phtml
    22. http://new.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases//2001-07 -25.678.phtml
    23. http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/epub/faqs.asp
    24. http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/epub/faqs.asp
    25. http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/epub/faqs.asp
    26. http://www.pigdogs.org/art/adobe.html
    27. http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/dvd-discuss -faq.html#ss2.4.6
    28. http://www.politechbot.com/p-02293.html
    29. http://www.sharon-herald.com/localnews/recentnews/ 0005/ln050400h.html
    ________________________________________________ __ ___________________________________

    Disclaimer: By reading, viewing or disseminating this information you
    agree to hold the creators harmless.

    This information is protected by the US Constitution. All other contracts
    are null and void.

    License: You may do anything you want with this information as long as
    it is reproduced in it's entirety.
    ________________________________________________ __ ___________________________________

  4. Re:Adobe's lawyers are quite busy! by sharkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?

    All the words starting with "n", apparently.

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  5. News for nerds... by sulli · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From the findings of fact on Bunner:


    Andrew Bunner first became aware of DeCSS on October 26, 1999 through a
    discussion on the news website slashdot.org.


    So someone learned something from this site!

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  6. Re:My God respect intellectual property by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm pretty sure this will get modded down as Flaimbait or whatever, but I don't care.

    No, it will get modded down because it's entirely off-topic.



    It's stupid that people think they can break copyright laws and be set free by the open source fairy. That's not how it works.

    And apparently it's stupid for people to think they can follow the law which specifically allows for certain exceptions such as interoperability (DeCSS), and it's absolutely stupid for people to follow the law in their home country, then get picked up in another country where they followed the local law while they were there, but something legal they did while in their home country is illegal to do in the other country (Skylarov). You are right on one thing however: Following the law and expecting to not get jailed when you happen to annoy somebody with lots of money appears to not be the way things work.



    The law is there and it is there for you to respect.

    This one's too easy. Niggers to the back of the bus, the law is there for you to respect. I'm your Lord and I have conjugal rights to your wife, the law is there for you to respect. Your religion is against the law and the punishment is death, the law is there for you to respect. The fact is that some laws do not deserve respect, and these laws should be changed or stricken.



    Copyright laws protect people who need to make a living.

    No, copyright laws (at least in the U.S.) encourage the production of arts and science by establishing limited monopolies on their reproduction, whereas in a free market there would be less incentive to produce. Some artists and scientists can make a living off this limited monopoly, others cannot, others don't need it, but establishing a source of income is the effect, not the cause, of copyright, and the copyright is not a protection but a grant from the government.



    You have no right to steal their property or circumvent protection of intellectual property so you can get free stuff.

    True that I have no right to steal intellectual property, but offtopic as stealing IP has nothing to do with watching a DVD that I legally purchased on my FreeBSD-based DVD player, or printing a portion of an E-Book that I legally purchased to read on the bus to work/school. Circumventing protection is still legal in the U.S. as long as one does not tell anyone how to do it, and that is legal almost everywhere else.



    No matter what you package it under, 99% of all so-called "free speech" trials against prominent open sources are about people who want free stuff.

    First this is an exaggeration, as I don't think there have been enough trials for there to be 99%. Also, few of the computing free speech trials have been against open sourcers, and I can think of none against any open sourcer who was prominent before the trial started (save Randall Schwartz's case, which was less about free speech and more about office politics).


    Of the major such cases I can recall at the moment, the Communications Decency Act (later repealed) outlawed all obscenity on the Internet (meaning I wouldn't be able to tell you to fuck off for your stupid post without being fined and/or arrested); the Church of Scientology was suing people who had distributed its copyrighted documents after the Church had publicly and under oath denied certain things about its organization that the documents proved to be true, making the knowledge in the documents a matter of public interest. Whether the public interest outweighed the copyright is a matter of opinion, as courts in Scandinavia decided for the public interest while courts on the Continent decided for copyright; Skala and Janssen produced an essay on the form and quality of Cyber Patrol's product, along with tools that would allow an owner of Cyber Patrol to access the list of websites that are blocked, an index that by judicial precedent is not a copyrightable work. The judge in his decision against the two declared that they were trying to start a second Nazi Holocaust, so no danger of partiality here; Felton, a professor who had to sue to get a paper released without being sued himself; and DeCSS and Sklyarov; And in various ridiculous domain name cases, the undercurrent in the ones that draw outrage is that somebody registers a domain which is either a common word, their name, or a trademark of their company, and they get sued out of it by someone else with deep pockets who usually either already has a domain name and/or risks no confusion by the existance of the other name. Only one (Scientology) case of these involved a genuine infringement of copyright, and in that case the infringers who saw the work as having no value did not want free stuff, but wanted the information contained in the documents to be public knowledge because they saw a danger to the public in not having the knowledge.


    Mitnick, Napster and MP3.com don't count because they're not about free speech. Kevin Mitnick was a crook who was the first defendant in the history of the United States to be denied a bail hearing. In addition, the prosecuting attorneys heavily inflated the damages they claimed he had caused to ridiculous levels by claiming the development cost of producing programs he had copied as the cost incurred by his copying them, after others had already copied and distributed the same software. In the Napster case the company contributed to copyright infringement by advertising its service as a place to get free files. During trial, the RIAA alleged and the judge appeared to believe that Napster was itself making copies of the music files, while in reality files are copied from one user to another an Napster only keeps an index of filenames and users. Furthermore, Napster has shown good faith by removing users who illegally provide files that someone else has copyright for whenever they have been asked to do so. MP3.com was distributing copies of music without a license because they were too dumb to understand copyright laws, which is pretty open and shut.



    Here's an idea: If you want information/whatever to be free go make something and give it away for free. You can put a Public liscence on whatever you make, and give it away however your heart desires.

    Sounds like that open source movement you're deriding in the first paragraph.



    You cannot give away things that are not your own intellectual property. You are damaging people who need to make a living and those of us who pay for the software.

    Agreed, but offtopic.




    So in conclusion, if you want information to be free, go make some and make it free. Don't steal others'.


    That's what Johansen, LiViD, and their DeCSS supporters did. That's what Skala and Janssen did. That's what Felton did. Skylarov made his own information, but chose to sell it rather than give it away. All have been sued, threatened with suit, jailed, or threatened with jail time for doing what you recommend. That's why people are concerned for their rights, and that's why you are offtopic.