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Sklyarov Update
Seth Schoen writes: "Dmitry Sklyarov's arraignment has been rescheduled to Thursday, August 30. It's at the same location where it was originally supposed to take place this past Thursday. The arraignment is scheduled for 9:30am PT, Thursday, August 30. The hearing will be held with US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg presiding, in courtroom 4, 5th floor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Branch, 280 South 1st
Street, in San Jose, California."
Schoen continues: "This week is also LinuxWorld
Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Since many Sklyarov supporters are Linux users, there should be a lot of activity around the conference. Two events have been scheduled this week in San Francisco to take advantage of LinuxWorld:
Free Dmitry party and fundraiser, Wednesday, August 29, 7:30p to midnight, 201 Ritch Street, 2nd floor. (This is walking distance from Moscone Center, where LinuxWorld is being held.)
This party will feature speeches by Lawrence Lessig and Richard Stallman.
Free Dmitry protest march, Thursday, August 30 (same day as the arraignment), leaving Moscone Center at 11:30a, parade through the city to the Burton Federal Building in Civic Center.
Five other events that same day have so far been reported to the freesklyarov.org calendar: Boston, MA; Moscow, Russia; London, UK; Los Angeles, CA; Black Rock City, NV (at the Burning Man festival)."
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Does anyone know how his wife and kids are holding up during this ordeal?
Is there a way that we can contribute monetarily to helping them through the hardship of not having Dmitry around?
o/~ Join us now and share the software
-foxxz
Yes...have a look at sf.freesklyarov.org.
Check out this oped by Linda Seebach. It's nothing folks here don't know, but it's put together clearly and beautifully for popular consumption. I think it's a sign that the general public is catching on to the dangerous idiocy of the DMCA.
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
When this whole thing started, I remember thinking about this very thing...where is the outrage from the Russian government? The citizens of Russia probably don't have the same quality of information channels Westerners do, which is probably why it's taken this long for the first protests to be organized. But I seem to recall when a few Chinese-American and even Chinese nationals living in the USA were arrested for similar reasons in China, President Bush didn't hesitate to ship Colin Powell overseas to secure their release.
But then, seeing how our people have the freedom to learn and speak out against policies we disagree with, and seeing how our government works not just for citizens but for anyone who wants a piece of the pie to have our freedoms, I can't help but be thankful that I'm lucky enough to live here.
I just hope the DMCA is ditched soon enough that I won't end up changing my mind.
the right to a speedy trial (6th Amendment)? "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, ..." It seems that it's been several months since Dmitry was first arrested, surely he has the right to be arraigned within less than a week. But then again, you only have rights if you know how to demand them, as a russian he wouldn't know the ins and outs of American jurisprudence (not to imply that more than a handful of Americans know how to successfully demand rights from freedom violators)..
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
CNN...
"Sklyarov is due to be arraigned Thursday, but both sides will ask a federal judge to postpone the hearing by a week, lead defense attorney Joseph Burton said Wednesday."
Now I'm not saying that the ENTIRE delay was agreed to by his lawyers - but we are talking about a landmark case here.
http://windows.scares.us
Just as a point of clarification:
In the United States, in criminal matters, the plaintiff is The People(TM). NOT the individual victim. When I wrote someone a summons for vandalism a week or so ago, the form said The People of the City of XXXXXXX, by and for The People of the State of Colorado, vs Defendant.
It's not unheard of for a victim to decide he doesn't want a case pushed. In point of fact, it happens in about 80% of a certain category of violent crime in my area[1]. However, prosecutors are VERY STRONGLY discouraged from dismissing a case because of an uncooperative victim, because such a practice lends itself to tampering with victims or witnesses.
Imagine it: You commit a felony crime against someone. He calls the police. A report is taken and referred to the District Cartooney, who files a C&I [2] with the court charging you with the crime. You subsequently influence the victim, somehow, to decide that he doesn't want the case pushed. That's a BIG part of why charging decisions are not left to victims. What kind of influence made him drop the case? What kind of influence did the Mafia use for decades? Hint: Modern street gangs use it too, which is why you can have killings in broad daylight in public where "nobody saw anything."
In cases without mandatory charging laws,[3] a complaint can be dismissed by a prosecutor. It's called "discretion." It's, unfortunately, most obvious in sexual assault cases, as it's damn near impossible to make a case without a cooperative victim on the witness stand. Once the case is bound over for trial, the DA has no obligation to drop it, but no prosecutor is going to push an unwinnable case. Refusing to testify can be contempt of court, but the usual practice is to consider that certain classes of victims have suffered enough.
Getting back to the point: It's not Adobe's decision. It's the US Attorney's decision, for the US Cartooney in the district in which the charges were brought (Northern California?). Ina case like this, in which the victim's victimhood is unclear and the defendant's criminal purpose is doubtful, a prosecutor would probably be very receptive to such a suggestion by Adobe. However, the US Cartooney is the ONLY person with the power to dismiss the charges. (Or the judge, but he can only do it if there's no probable cause to believe Skylarov did the prohibited act. Given where the case stands, that means the judge has no power to dismiss the charges.)
[1] Domestic violence offenses. But those aren't news for nerds, and I guess they don't constitute stuff that matters to anyone but the victim, her kids, and the cops who have to rescue her ass every other month.
[2] Complaint and Information, the name of the document that's filed with a court to begin a felony criminal case. In my state, they're filed with the county court and beging with "The District Attorney in and for the Sixth Judicial District informs the court that..." which explains the odd name.
[3] In my state, Domestic Violence and restraining order violations. A peace officer who develops probable cause to believe someone committed either is legally REQUIRED to arrest that person and book him into jail. A prosecutor is FORBIDDEN to drop the charges unless he can satisfy the court that guilt cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. THis is because we let DV's go for so long without taking them seriously, and the price for that is being paid in a lot of blood and tears.