Slashdot Mirror
Sklyarov Indicted
Nutcase was the first to write with news from the AP that "Dmitry Sklyarov, 27 and ElComSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow were charged with five counts of copyright violations for writing a program that lets users of Adobe Systems' eBook Reader get around copyright protections imposed by electronic-book publishers." Here's a link to the AP story at the Washington Post. Here is the story at Salon as well. Update: 08/29 01:57 AM GMT by T : Here's the EFF's release on the indictment, too -- including information about where to go if you'd like to demonstrate your reaction publicly.
Wouldn't it have been nice if ebook technology had been around when Ben Franklin instituted the first Libraries in the U.S.? Franklin could have been indited too!
How the hell can Elcomsoft be indicted for breaking a U.S. copyright law when that firm is in RUSSIA!?
The indictment alleges that the programmer and the company conspired for "commercial advantage and private financial gain."
We should be hanging everyone who is guilty of these things.
I smell a wumpus! [S]hoot or [M]ove ->
"ElcomSoft was culpable because it sold the program for $99 in the United States through an online payment service based in Issaquah, Wash., and with a Web site hosted in Chicago."
...Don't host in the states. Rackspace Europe? Verio AsiaPacific?
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
5 criminal charges against him!? I see about 3: trafficing software that violates DMCA, selling software that violates DMCA (which is his company, not him). Ok, so it's two. Little help please?
Has the court posted the pdfs of today's proceedings anywhere?
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Where's my checkbook?
It's time to make anothe donation to the EFF.
Seriously, each and every one of us should make a small donation to the EFF so we can fight this miscarriage of justice. We don't have to put up with bad laws! Just because Congress has been bought and paid for by the members of the MPAA, the RIAA, and the BSA doesn't mean we have to bend over and take it.
This DMCA crap has got to be stopped.
Besides, the EFF raid hats are really cool.
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
Now let's all concentrate on getting the guy home to his wife and kids, and not use him to further our political ends. If someone volunteers to be a test case for the FSF or others, that's fine; he did not, and is a unwitting victim of our police state.
Peace, or Not?
Whether or not we agree with the laws, there is a big difference between the two morals.
But to see why, you have to first know the reason the DMCA exists to begin with. I talk about that here.
Now, it's important to realize that the corporations behind the DMCA want to use it as a terror weapon. How else can you prevent people from creating and trafficking in copyright circumvention devices (software or otherwise)? A law which nobody behaves is a useless law. But a terror weapon isn't effective if people don't believe you'll use it.
If the prosecution were to drop this case, it would make it clear that the DMCA is a law that the government isn't willing to enforce (after all, if they're not going to enforce it against a foreign national, what chance is there that they'll enforce it against a U.S. citizen?).
So they'll take this case as far as the defense is willing to go, hoping that the defense runs out of resources or time before this gets to the Supreme Court.
And trust me, the government will put a lot of money and resources into this case. They want to get and keep a conviction as long as possible, because that's what the government's masters (the corporations) want. so expect to see this case drag on for years, if not decades.
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
we all figured on this happening, right? now, if he's *convicted*, that'll suck.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
This make my blood curdle. This man has a wife and two children. He is a guest of the United States of America. And he has been put in jail to await prosecutions for what?! - talking to a group of computer professionals about the weaknesses inherent to particular encryption technologies!
The "freedom" we love to chatter about is not merely an abstraction, an interesting conversation at a summer BBQ, a fly in the ointment of our libertarian campaigns. Freedom is real. Dmitry's children can't see their father. He's been branded a criminal. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Give Dmitry freedom! Give him freedom in a country founded on the principle of freedom!
If Dmitry is not freed, I propose that everyone with the capability of shutting down an email server do so upon his conviction.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Why, in this country of supposed freedom, do we allow companies to control not only specific markets, (in the case of Micro$oft monopoly) but also allow them to lobby towards laws that take away freedoms, such as freedom of speech.
I know that ElComSoft Co. Ltd made mistakes when they started selling a program designed to defeat a specific type of encryption. I feel that this is wrong. Unfortunately, arresting a programer for giving a speech about how he broke the encryption is hogwash as well. (did I really say hogwash...)
This country (the USA) was founded upon ideals that one man can speak his mind, and express himself in whatever way that he chooses, as so long as it doesn't detriment others. (thus, yelling "fire" in a theater is wrong) I see no reason why showing an encryption to be faulty and how to circumvent it AS A ACADEMIC STUDY wrong. As I said before, I think that the company was at fault, but can the "oh so mighty" hand of the US touch a company in Russia? Nope, we can't, at least legally anyway. So the goverment uses a poorly worded law to push the corporate views on American people. What will be next? Will I be arrested because I point out a security hole in Microsoft's hotmail site? No, but if I start selling a product that will allow it's user's to read other's email, I can and I should be arrested. I don't believe that Sklyarov ownes this company, he is just a programmer.
This person has been arrested for violation of the DMCA. I don't believe in the DMCA, and unfortunately, I cannot make my congressman or senator understand why. (The breaking of encryption is over their heads, and copyrights and patents lasting forever is very vague to them as well.) They are too pressured my lobbyists throwing bags of money at them to listen to something that would blackball them in the lobbyists eyes. So what happens? More rights are taken away from all Americans, and 85% or more of Americans don't know of don't care.
It is a sad state.
Ben Franklin ( I think ) said that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." But Americans have become to apathetic to even care about there government, much less the actions that the government has been taking. And because of this more and more skewed laws have worked there way in the the US Code. Sadly, today, they could arrest almost anyone with the inordinate amount of laws on the books. They chose here and now to arrest Mr. Sklyarov. I hope that he wins, and I hope that the court system invalidates this very askew law. It would help put more freedom back into the individuals hand, and away from the greedy corporate entity.
Blah Blah Blah.
RTFA, "Adobe dropped its support of the case on July 23." IOW, it's now the US government that's persuing the case. Adobe's realized that the US is over-eager to apply the DCMA, and has backed off. Perhaps we should boycott the US instead?
you raise a good point - anyone of our russian slashdotters care to comment on how your government is reacting to the whole Dimitry thing? Or how ElComSoft has reacted?
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
The software doesn't "get around copyright protections." Copyright is a legal protection, the software merely allows you to get around copy protections. Does anyone else think the difference is important?
They added a few conspiracy charges against him. It's up to 25 years now.
Nearly all legal systems dating back to the Code of Justinian recognize the difference between malum prohibitum and malum in se. The former refers to conduct that is criminal by diktat; the latter refers to to conduct that is criminal by its very nature.
In other words, were Sklyarov murdering people or depriving people of property, there might be a better case for not treating him with any leniency, particularly where his case has significant constitutional implications.
Has anyone here ever been to one of these protests? I attended an EFF protest of the DMCA in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. It was scheduled for noon, but I was busy then, so I showed up around 2:30 pm. Nobody was there. No sign of a protest, no signs, nada. Later a friend of mine who was there said they left around 2, because they were tired. That's perhaps the sorriest excuse for a protest I've ever heard. I'm sure they left a lasting impression on society.
-bugg
Young man,
there's no need to feel down
Because your plane
back home can't get off the ground
I said young man,
Get comfy in your new town
There's no need to be unhappy.
Young man,
There's no place you can go
I said young man,
Until you cough up some dough
You will stay here
until you've served all your time
For your insignificant crime.
It's fun to stay in the U S of A,
Because of that old grand D M C A
For cracking DVD's,
Or an e-book or three,
You'll get jailed for eterniteeeee...
It's fun to stay in the U S of A
Because of that old grand D M C A
For proving to the world
That our encryption's a toy
You'll get jailed with all the boyyyyyyys...
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
If they aren't, why the hell aren't they?!!? It was Skylarov under their employ writing the program. So you're telling me that if I write a program for my company that violates some stupid law in some other country, I cannot ever hope to go to that country under fear of prosecution?
If he did it solely and entirely to make a financial gain, then sure I can see this case having a point. But without that, it's entirely pointless.
But luckily, if this case goes to a jury (which I believe that with penalties like that it must go to a jury) they will never convict. There is no way that any group of 12 people could unanimously send a father to prison for 5 years because he wrote a program for his employer that, really, does jack all. How many e-books are there? What does this program really affect ??? This guy has done practically nothing. It's like arresting me for dropping a piece of paper out of my pocket and sticking me in prison for 5 years for "defacing public property" or something stupid like that. This is overkill to the nth degree.
Sorry, but this just gets me all wound up again.
Mind you, it was no surprise that they indicted. There was no way that they were not going to indict, but lets hope to God that this insanity stops before it gets to court, and that if it does get that far that they won't convict. Maybe then I'll still believe that the USA has at least a shred of hope...
If God gave us curiosity
I have never seen anything to date that said Sklyarov himself was involved with the Ebook decoder project. Just being with a company that did illegal things is not illegal in itself; otherwise we would arrest all their janitors and secretaries.
Even if he did work on the Ebook project, he could claim that he did not knowingly do anything wrong since (1) it was not illegal work in Russia and (2) it work done solely for a Russian company. While claiming ignorance of the law is no excuse, I don't see how a jury could convict him directly given these facts.
That being said, shouldn't the United States be going after the company's officers (CEO, etc.), and not Sklyarov?
I hate to say this, but the grand jury indictment doesnt suprise me one bit. As much as we hate it, the DMCA is the law. And there's plenty of evidence that Dmitry violated the DMCA. Right now the most important thing is to get Dmitry home to his family right now. If that sets a precedent for the DMCA, that's great, but let's not make Dmitry a martyr at his own expense (yes I realize that's an oxymoron). The DMCA can be challenged later, probably in the Supreme Court. Unfortunatly, this means that there will have to be more and more Sklyarov/Felton/2600-esque cases untill the DMCA is gone for good.
But I sincerely hope that the EFF will use the power of public support to push the feds for a plea bargain with no jail time, or just deportation maybe. I'm not a lawyer, and I definitely despise the DMCA and support Dimitry, but with the site that was hosted in the US and the fact that Elcomsoft was profiting from this, I don't think that this is a winnable case. Ethics and common sense are on our side, and I believe the Felten case is very strong, but I believe Dimitry would be convicted simply because a judge's reaction will go something like 'right or wrong, the law is the law.' Or maybe I've just been watching too much Law & Order.
The indictment alleges that the programmer and the company conspired for "commercial advantage and private financial gain."
So this is now a crime? When will we see Microsoft hauled in on this charge then? Or Adobe? Or any for-profit entity for that matter?
By the way, the original subject of this post was "This is illegal?!!", but I had to change it because of the "postersubj compression filter". Note to CmdrTaco et al: Your dumbass lameness filters are broken. They don't stop trolls and ASCII art, and they annoy legitimate posters. Either fix them or get rid of them. Or at least put a meaningful error message in there. "Postersubj compression filter" doesn't yield much of a clue as to what's wrong unless one wants to slog through the morass of Slashcode to find out what triggered the message. And I don't.
And the brethren went away edified.
At any rate, I'm considering initiating a personal/cororate boycott of Adobe products, including PDF. I've fought long and hard to replace word documention with PDF (word isn't suited for technical docs anyway). Is there a good replacement for PDF? PostScript? Before anyone shouts something wierd like TeX or DVI; be serious, that may work in a lab or research group, but not for coporate america.
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
Consider too that many of the best minds are not from America, and this sort of bullshit will easily dissuade them from ever touching on American soil.
The DCMA and disgustingly similar concepts are going to box the United States in, and slowly but utterly stagnate it.
Summary:
Prosecution for Speaking (thought police) =
Fewer bright citizens immigrating (or just plain aiding) for fear of prosecution =
Fewer innovations in the USA =
The eventual demise of an empire.
Quite the leap, but you know... I ain't the only one saying it.
First off, he isn't a US citizen. He is a visitor from a foreign country. This leaves him with fewer resources, fewer rights, and little understanding of the rights he does have.
IANAL, and I don't know exactly what rights an accused foreigner has in the USA, but I'm sure that the feds are less inclined to play by the rules they have to when dealing with a citizen.
Secondly, he isn't just any foreigner, he's Russian. If the general public is going to take notice of the DMCA, the feds want a good impression. Lots of people (sadly and surprisingly) still view the Russians as "the enemy" and will view Dmitry as an "evil communist." Thus they might see the DMCA as something that fights the evil commies.
This also might strike fear into citizens of other nations, and convey the message that no country is as powerful as the US, which will FIND a way to subject everyone world wide to its laws.
As a Citizen of the US, I am very angry about this. Dmitry should be freed and sent home immediately, and then the White House should send an apology to the Russians for this behavior.
I know that they'd demand the same for one of our citizens cought up in a BS situation like this in another country.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I questioned early on whether the ACLU would risk their hollywood gravy train by coming out in support of Sklyarov. Several Slashdot posters indicated they would use the feedback page to see why the ACLU was totally silent (try searching for "Sklyarov" -- absolutely nothing). Still nothing, though.
Those of you who are ACLU supporters should take careful note of this.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Had a hell of a time getting this past the lamness filter. But here is a link to a post on alt.ascii-art regarding this case
Ascii artist &
If you're at LinuxWorld or just in or near SF, it's tomorrow night. Stallman and Lessig are speaking, free beer, music, representatives from the EFF an FSF, and plenty of opportunities to donate, join the EFF, etc.. See you there.
Here's the web page.
spend the time you'd be writing the same things you said last time news on dmitry was posted here writing to your congressman or attending/organizing rallies.
less talk, more action.
You are seeing the creation of the new drug war. You can expect to see the following features of DW-I in instant replay
- criminalization of perfectly ethical behavior that powerful segments of society happen not to approve of,
- draconian penalties for these supposed crimes,
- justification of this nonsense on the basis of huge ass-pulled numbers purporting to show how much damage the "crime" is doing to the economy,
- legislators and public prosecutors fanning the fire to further their careers,
- courts that will set aside your traditional freedoms because the wankers in the FBI can't get their convictions in a free society,
- ultimately, absolutely no impact on the behavior that Drug War II was supposed to control, and
- a new eco-niche for genuine crime, created by the new legal system and exploited by punks who will ultimately be the next generation's Organized Crime (cf. prohibition, Drug War I).
Fear for your freedoms.Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
The news.com site also covered the story.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
Well, it seems to be official. Fair use in the U.S. is dead. Look at what the indictment boils down to:
Note that the indictment clearly indicates that AEBPR is only useful to purchasers of ebooks in Adobe's format, so there can be no allegation of it being used for widespread piracy. Instead, Sklyarov's apparent crime is to allow people to actually use the ebooks they've bought and paid for. Of the items enumerated as being restrictable by the publisher or distributor, only distribution is forbidden by copyright law prior to the DMCA, and then only when the fair use exemptions don't apply. It seems rather overreaching to me that the DMCA criminalizes being able to do such ordinary actions with an ebook such as having the computer read it aloud or print it, let alone making copies for backup or use on another machine.
Note also that the indictment makes no mention of the AEBPR being used to violate copyright law. No evidence is offered that any of the handful of its purchasers used the program for any illegal purpose. The mere fact that it allows the purchaser full use of a bought ebook and the theoretical possibility of commiting an act (unpermitted distribution) which is already illegal under century old copyright law, is reason enough to send a man to jail for 25 years. Scary.
And publishers wonder in vain why ebooks aren't selling very well? Gee, if you don't let the purchaser do anything with them, making ebooks far more restricted and less useful than print books, and totally upset the balance between public and private interests enshrined in copyright law, you should expect this. Indeed, I'm frightened that ebooks have sold as well as they have. The freedoms and rights associated with reading seem to no longer apply in the digital world if the interests that bought the DMCA have their way.
Then escalate. If Dmitry is convicted, and you have the power, shut down any email servers you control for a week.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Really? My understanding is that he didn't sell or provide the software here. The company he works for did. The fact that he owns a part of that company has on place in this discussion. Ford stock holders own part of Ford, are they being sued in their own right?
No, the only way they could get him was with a real streach on the "long arm" provision of US code. That's the real stretch.
IANAL
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
> > I'm willing to sacrifice all my freedoms to win the War on Drugs.
> Then you're a fucking moron. If you are an American, you should be ashamed of yourself.
One might also ask what it means to "win" the War on Drugs. In practice, its supporters are "winning" so long as it is getting bigger, more expensive, and more draconian. If everyone in the USA quit using drugs tomorrow, thousands of careers would be ruined. Legislators would have to find some other drum to beat to scare voters into supporting them. Law enforcement agencies would have to find other drums to beat to scare the public into upping their funding and granting them more arbitrary powers.
And of course, if a politician took a stand against the drug war and looked like he had any chance of putting an end to it, the drug lords themselves would be quickest at the assassination attempt.
No, don't expect the drug war to be "won" anytime soon, no matter how many of your freedoms you give up. Willingly or otherwise.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I was with a group of about 6 people; shame NOBODY was around to provide signs, etc, when we showed up.
-bugg
Never have I seen such negative speaking of the DMCA from a "real" news source, even the Associated Press:
Is it just me, or is that the most neutral, almost pro-Sklyarov paragraph you've ever seen? It even continues:
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
So, after the arrest Adobe got email-bombed by us guys (&gals) trying to voice our protest (see http://www.boycottadobe.com or .org - too lazy to check)
As it seems now, the protest has to be taken to higher ranks in the legal system.
Can anyone supply email adresses of the people involved? I mean lawyers, consulars, attorneys, judges, congresscritters, whatever?!
I think about the only way this could lead to a conviction is the sheer ignorance of a lot of the involved people (see Microsoft Antitrust case). Well, ignorance can actually be a form of violence. And there is only one cure for it, so who can i tell what is going on, what the real-life analogy is, and how i am feeling about this (even as a foreign citizen... i think, i hope actually that every voice counts!)
+++ath0
All a Grand Jury hears is what the Prosecutor wants them to hear. It's not a trial, but merely the prosecution's presentation of their prima facie case - witnesses mostly, maybe hard evidence.
It's an old saying around courthouses that a Prosecutor can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich.
The trial won't be so one-sided, one hopes.
The indictment itself is available as PDF from the US Department of "Justice".
One would think in a civilized society, somone on the prosecution would stop for a second and actually think about what they are doing. They original plaintifs have since changed thier minds, the public (at least those who know about it) is against it, the man is not even a U.S. citizen! The case in completely unwinnable, and unworthy. At best it will get thrown out right away, at worst it will go all the way to the Supreme Court before getting struck down. Why can't the prosecution see that they are in a perfect lose-lose situation. They don't even have the moral imperative on thier side to keep going, becuase locking up somone for what amounts to thought crime is morally wrong.
I realize this is ranting, but please, where is the glimmer of intelligence in these people that tells them to give up now?
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
sure, it's available on web-based media; what about the local and national newspapers in print, CNN, FOXNews, ABC, CBS, on cable? Most people still get their news from traditional news sources (print and TV).
That's where I want to see these news, and until then I will not be satisfied.
What will be next? Will I be arrested because I point out a security hole in Microsoft's hotmail site? No, but if I start selling a product that will allow it's user's to read other's email, I can and I should be arrested.
Why should you be arrested even then? It's good that you can see how wrong it is for Skylarov to be indicted for a speech, but you've still let the government brainwash you a bit.
You should be arrested if you break in to a computer with malice of forethought and read other people's email. You should not be arrested if you: talk about how to break in, create a tool to break in, distribute a tool capable of breaking in. All of those things are protected by free speech, whether the government currently realizes it or not.
"And like that
Unless it causes harm it's hard to do, but the threat of harm may still cause damage.
But this way they can get it dealt with quickly.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Of course it is Adobe's fault. They requested that he be arrested but not be prosecuted. Unfortunately they can't stop the government, Dmitry will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Adobe should at least accept responibility for their actions and pay Sklyarov's legal bills.
Yes, I said that. Adobe intended to slap his wrist and instead dropped him into the meat grinder. He is suffering more hardship than they intended. They are at the very least responsible for his legal bills and some sort of compensation for his detention in the US. (I assume Dmitry is not allowed to work to support his family while he in the US.)
Yeah 350 million population of the us - 50 people who post this shit on slashdot
What revolution - the 'normal' people (you know the sheep who pay taxes, vote, use MS products, actually buy copyright movies and books etc) would rise up and skull fuck you so fast your eyes would spin.
Whos scared of an overweight big talking pasty faced turd anyway - geez i bet the US military are quaking in their boots.
THE GOVT HAVVE SPOKEN - LIKE MITNICKE ETC FROM NOW ON IF YOU BREAK THE LAW THEY WILL STICK A LARGE BAT UP YOUR ASS - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED BY THIS AND OTHER CASES AND IF YOU IGNORE IT YOU DO SO AT YOUR PERIL
I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
Ok, so the Feds find themselves in a tough position-- they've got to enforce this law that Adobe themselves say they don't want enforced.
If they drop all the charges, this looks too obviously like they were just Adobe's bitches, a private police force at the beck and call of big business ("arrest him? Ok. Don't arrest him.. Ok.")
If they do indict him mildly, they set up a situation where Dmitri's sentence might turn out to be enough of slap on the wrist that it's worth contesting on principle, and then this would surely become a test-case for the constitutionality of the entire law. Since they ARE bitches to big business, the government doesn't want this. If it's gonna be tested in court they'll want a more clear-cut case of some obviously evil megapirate somewhere, not a sympathetic programmer out to topple an unjust law.
So what did they do? They decided to throw the book at him, pile up enough charges that it becomes a very high-stakes game for Dmitri personally. Dmitri will be intimidated (and rightly so) into negociating his way out of it. He's got nothing to gain from being a test case in a bad American law...and everything to lose.
After the judge dismisses some charges along the way, Dmitri will likely plea-bargain his way down to probation or something and skip off to Russia shortly thereafter.
The Feds look like they're not pussies, the law remains unchallenged, Dmitri gets a slap on the wrist, and the MPAA/RIAA's message is preserved: "Don't fuck with us. We WILL fuck with you."
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I'm not sure where you block quote comes from, I assume from the indictment text?
If so, it appears that the prosecutor is deliberatly casting the case in terms that will allow the defense to challenge and break the DMCA.
The law will stand until a judge declares it invalid. The first step in that process is for the prosecutor to charge someone with the law. Dmitry is being charged in a very favorable light. No emphasis about how the unprotected books could then be published illegally. Equal weight is given to the three legitimate uses. (copying, printing, and text to speech.)
Someone with a very fine sense of how that district works should read that indictment and see what is between the lines.
[Ignoring the fact that you're just trooling...]
I'm curious why you call me "criminal". Is it because I disagree with something the government is doing? Is it because I disagree with you?
It certainly isn't because I'm a drug user, because I'm not, and never have been, and wouldn't become one if they legalized it tomorrow.
However, the fact that I'm not a droogie doesn't mean I don't live in fear that the FBI will read my post on Slashdot, take Rob to court and make him give them my meatspace name, kick my door down, throw a baggie on my couch, and haul me off to prison for 30 years. I wouldn't stand the slightest chance of proving my innocence.
The Soviet Union had its gulags; the USA has its drug war.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Its nice to see that US corporate officers and employees can cower behind the corporate shield for liability but the DMCA can put blame on one man and violate his first amendment right to speech at the same time?
Second, Adobe chose to invoke the DMCA demon, tipped law enforment to the speech, and is part of this big propaganda/scare tactic. They chose NOT to go the way of a civil lawsuit. They wanted this gestapo crap and since they've gotten what they wanted they just bowed out and left everyone bitching about the evil DMCA and not the coporations that bought it and use it.
Where's the big adobe boycott? The DMCA can be overturned at any moment, but business tactics like these will stick around if they think they can get away with it and right now they are getting away with it.
Didn't you hear? He was a traitor to the British crown, and under sentence of death for his part in revolutionary activities.
We sure could use him right about now.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
you'll never get 5.56 mm NATO out to 800 yards with good accuracy. For that kind of range, you are far better off with a heavier round, like 7.62 mm. Very popular with the high power marksman crowd, using rifles like the M14. For the "evil black rifle" look, I'd suggest the HK G3.
To get back on topic... oh, the hell with the topic for today.
I don't give a damn if Adobe backed off. The very LEAST they could do if they were sincere about making amends is foot the bill for Dmitry's defense.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
This fracas is Adobe's fault, and nobody else's.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Tit for tat. Just start arresting any Adobe employees in Russia. Do it all at once and you could have quite a haul. Anyone here who cries foul at Russia for arresting US citizens for the actions of the company they work for while outside Russia is going to look really fscking stupid and hypocritical.
Dyolf Knip
Their time has passed. Today, they're bloody close to useless.
If you want to support the causes that the ACLU stood for in the past, send your money to Amnesty International and/or the EFF.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Granted, it's a rare case where two major cities have the same name, but text is cheap and clarification is never a bad thing.
Dyolf Knip
Remember that paper letters and faxes almost always count more in the eyes of elected officials than E-Mails.
Still, now's a good time to start carpet-bombing Washington with paper *and* Bits:
----------
Dear ,
I write you today in order to ask your support to help overturn the law known as the DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
This law is currently being used by the federal government to quash the Free Speech rights of a Russian computer programmer, Dmitry Sklyarov, who was arrested for using his programming skills to demonstrate that Adobe Corporation's E-Book security was flawed and held without bail for several weeks in the United States. This is despite the fact that what he did is a protected right in Russia, and many in the United States believe that this use of the DMCA violates the First Amendment to the constitution.
I don't know about you, but it's a pretty sad day when a Russian has more freedoms in his homeland than an American does in his. It's even sadder that a Russian was arrested in the United States for exercising his rights to Free Speech, something the United States fought for decades to promote in Communist-controlled Russia.
I'm not alone in my feelings. Thousands of individuals who share these beliefs are organizing protests and fundraising campaigns to help Dmitry, who is being unfairly prosecuted by the U.S. government.
Even the company who leveled charges at Sklyarov, Adobe, has since dropped its charges. Still, the Department of Justice continues to try to persecute this poor individual under a bad law.
As your constituent, I ask you to help overturn the DMCA so that it cannot be used as a bludgeon by profit-minded companies against individuals who chose to express their First Amendment rights in this manner.
It is your duty as an American to see that this man's basic rights are not trampled on.
Do your duty, .
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Like, yeah drugs are bad and I don't ever plan to use them but you gotta think, if you're killing all the drug users, what's the whole point of making the stuff illegal?
Guess the best way to make any drug dangerous, prohibition. If you want something to be safe you don't hand over the entire production and distribution to criminals.
Isn't it to keep harmful substances from killing people?
If that were the case you'd think they'd be coming down hard on paracetamol...
God, I want out of this god-damned country.
I'm no anti-corporatist (I hold several patents that I intent to profit from).
I'm no anarchist (I absolutely respect the rule of law).
I'm no L/libertarian (I can't stand people who talk about doing rather than doing).
I'm no American (I expect my government to respect me).
Bye-bye. I'm off to live in a free country.
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
Meanwhile, is there even a Sklyarov legal defense team? IANAL, but I'd start with questions like, was Sklyarov read his rights under the Vienna Convention and granted prompt access to a Russian consolate under that treaty? Although the US tends to ignore international law when convienent (particularly the Vienna convention, according to my research) now that Mueller's actually been named as the head of the FBI, there might be less resistance to letting him just go home. Though I wouldn't hold my breath. Keep in mind that our government's observance of the Vienna convention endangers our citizens travelling abroad, too. We've pissed several countries off already and I'm sure that our notification of our rights under the Convention will be slow or non-existant in those countries should we be arrested there.
Immediately follow that up with the juristictional issues. Again, those issues could easily lead to the dismissal of the case after an appeal or two. It would have the added benefit of short circuiting other cases being tried in California even though the "crime" never took place there.
Of course, if he can just get a plea bargain that results in his immediate deportation, that'd be the route I'd advise him to take. Just get the hell out and never come back and tell all your friends that "The Land of the Free" is really "The Land of the Corporate Interests" and has been for decades.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The difference should be important. But only in terms of educating the lay public about what is going on here. The point is really moot as far as Sklyarov's case goes. Copyright protection is a matter of civil law, not criminal law. Copy protection should be a matter of contract law and civil law because that is what software licenses are for.
This is why the DMCA is so draconian; it has made a crime out of the violation of a private agreement to not copy a piece of software. If the license for the software says, "thou shalt not copy and distribute this software" and you accept the license, you have entered into an agreement with the software manufacturer and are liable for civil damages should you violate that agreement. Then the DMCA comes along and says that if you invent a way to defeat built-in copy protection of a given piece of digital data you have committed a crime. It doesn't matter what you do with your invention; just the act of inventing it is a crime. This seems a little bit like thought-crime. So this issue really has nothing very much to do with Copyright and has more to do with cracking an encryption scheme -- regardless of whether or not you actually copy the software or distribute it.
So if you want to argue the fine points of semantics, don't lose sight of the real issue; that the mega-corp lobbies of Amerika have pushed through a bad law that makes a crime out of a civil breach.
I guess I'll take this opportunity to link to this entry in my Smokedot diary. I encourage webmasters to read it, because I'd like some assistance.
The short version: if you're a webmaster, and have pages on your site related to digital copyright issues - especially Sklyarov's case - check your logs for hits from the 198.25.0.0 - 198.26.255.255 netblock, which is controlled by NIPR (DoD Network Operations - a quick whois of 198.25.0.0@whois.arin.net will confirm this) containing a user agent of "Inktomi Search". A pair of machines at Kelly AFB in Texas with that user-agent have been the source of regular hits to my page on Sklyarov, about once a day. The hits are regular and targeted enough to convince me it's not a case of kiddiez spoofing, and I've had at least one report of very similar behaviour toward another site; targeted hits from a couple DoD boxen using a web spider. I'm doing some light investigation of the activity, and would be very interested in any logs documenting this type of behaviour.
If nothing else, I'd love to know why DoD machines are being used to search for copyright-related pages.
Side-note: some of the information I've gathered on NIPR implies that the group has constructed a firewall around the DoD workstations and servers; hence, any hits from NIPR.mil addresses may be the firewall/border routers and not the actual boxes performing the searches. However, at some point, DoD boxes are involved, and I'd like to know just what they're up to.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
IANAL
Someone may have mentioned this before, but after reading the charges in the indictment, and referencing the applicable law (Title 17, Section(b)(1)(A)), it appears that inumerable people are guilty of this crime.
"No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner..."
To me there are a coupe details that leap out at me here. First the use of the words component and part. Software design is filled with reused parts and components. Does this mean the author of Tree.h commited a crime when his component object was used in the decryption software?
Secondly, the phrase "effectively protects a right of a copyright owner" is unclear. If a person like Dmitri breaks an encryption scheme then that encryption scheme did not effectively protect the rights of the copy right owner.
Finally, Fair Use (Title 17 Section 107) allows for the copy of copyrighted works for specific purposes. Since the Exclusive Rights (Title 17, Section 106) are "subject to Subject to section(s) 107", I don't see how his software violates any right. Under Fair Use Copyright owners do not have the right to prevent their work from being copied.
Am I making some colossal error in my interpretation of these laws?
Indictment: PDF
Copy Right Law: Cornel / US Code
Okay, we've got protests getting organized left and right. I've received fundraising requests in my email. I see people up in arms and outraged with righteous indignation.
Good for you.
But where the hell were you guys for all the other crap going on in this country and all the rest? From the looks of things, you all act as if this were the first injustice ever perpetrated in history.
In California our prisons are overflowing with those who got arrested, indicted, convicted and sentenced for nothing more than ingesting chemical substances. Unwittingly violating the DMCA is just one of hundreds of nonviolent acts that can land you in jail. Why do we only care about one of them?
Let's free Sklyarov, but at the same time lets get all the other people convicted of nonviolent activities freed as well.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
... their explanation is a load of hooey, as any first-year law student can point out. The problem rests in the usage of the word ``the people''. According to the ACLU, ``the people'' in the Second Amendment refers to a collective right held by the State, not an individual right held by the people.
If we are to believe this, then every other instance of ``the people'' in the Bill of Rights needs to be interpreted identically. Otherwise, we wind up in a state of Constitutional inconsistency. While it is not impossible from a legal perspective to have the same phrase mean two completely different things, it is certainly deeply frowned upon.
This is the strongest argument in favor of the Second Amendment being an individual right, not collectivist--because any other interpretation would strip us of all our individually-held rights under the Constitution.
Alan Dershowitz (a well-known and respected attorney) is fervently opposed to firearms, but even he acknowledges the importance of viewing the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right--as Dershowitz says, ``any argument that can be used to take away someone's Second Amendment rights will sooner or later be used to take away their First Amendment rights.''
The ACLU is walking down a very slippery slope here. They know it's a slippery slope, and they don't care. It would be too hard, and too politically unpopular, to defend the Second Amendment. So they don't.
Personally, I think there's a spot in hell close to the fire saved especially for those people who lack the courage to defend the things they do not like in order to stand up for the things they do.
it's the Justice System of the USA which thinks it has the right to convict people for crimes they have 'committed' outside the USA. The USA may think they are allowed to do this, but what a person does in, say, the Netherlands, is not of the USA's business. Now EVERY citizen of EVERY country needs to know the USA laws, because he/she can get arrested when he/she visits the USA, and get convicted for a crime based on USA laws, that only IS a crime according to THOSE laws, but f.e. not according to the laws in the country the 'crime' was committed. (example: in the Netherlands you can legally buy and sell hasj, smoke hasj etc.)
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
the US Constitution burning in flames.
Wasn't his big mistake to sell the program?
;-) Nah, frat boys in suits aren't as scary as hackers.
Do you think he decided to sell it in the U.S.? He is just a 26 year old programmer at the company, and if it's anything like the software companies I've seen, the programmers have very little to do with the sales side of things. The program was meant for the domestic Russian market, but at some point they had a deal with a U.S. distributer to sell it here as well (until Adobe asked them to stop, which they did, after only selling a few copies).
If they were gonna lock somebody up, shouldn't it have been the market droids at ElComSoft?
I see you kind people know he is should free. Bad law and he make everyone know about. I hope that make him free and make thing better for America. I read that he is hero here, is true, no. 'If this happens, then with any luck the plight of this poor Russian will come to an end and his sacrifice will have served as a catalyst to awaken a broader spectrum of America to the injustice of this law. If in doing so it leads to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act being suitably revised, he will become the latest, if somewhat unwilling and accidental, champion of the First Amendment and a somewhat unusual protector of the U.S Constitution. ' Make free, please. Love Iva
Can you be convicted under the DMCA? Have you ever written code to convert one file format to another? Especially a proprietary file format? For a company? Might the evidence that damns you to jail for longer than a crime of rape woud be in your own Resume? Stranger things have happened...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Why isn't the reverse happening now? My girlfriends (who speaks Russian) tells me that the case is being covered in the Russian press, but its very much a 1/4 column on page 6 type of story. Perhaps Russia wants the big US corporations to invest in their country and doesn't want to upset them?
Anybody seen any comment from the Russian government?
It'd be cool if this tirade actually focused enough media attention on this situation to effect a repeal of this law. It's possible. The law is wrong and there are many in the /. community who are vocal; sometimes get noticed; and, don't have a hobby besides technology.
/. are your silent friend while you're off painting.
You might be off doing art, but you'll probably continue geeking out your machines to those graphic ends regardless.
The "minions" you appear to refer to on
Acknowledge that and don't alienate those who'll rabidly be defending your interests while you're painting your ideas.
If you can help them, you should. If you're part geek/part artist, you shouldn't criticize those who are just geek. They might be helpful to you when you're more focused on your art.
Artists tend not be judgemental. I am one. I'm also a geek, but respect the diverse opinions this forum depicts and don't make judgements. I couldn't since I'm an artist.
www.dedserius.com
VB != VisualBasic
But, hey, why stop there? If we have such unbounded trust in our legal officials, why do we bother with laws at all? Why not give police complete freedom to pick up people that are engaged in unsavory activities according to their judgement, give prosecutors complete freedom to craft punishments, and give judges complete freedom to impose whatever they see fit for whatever action they see as illegal or detrimental to society? Given the penalties currently on the books, we might as well.
What this comes down to is that the US is increasingly not a country of laws but a country run by the law enforcement and justice system. The distinction is profound and it is very important to keep it in mind. In fact, we have a name for the latter situation: it's called a "police state".
This US justice shit has gone too far, kidnapping foreign people for no reason (Adobe retreated) and promoting US as the last country where one could find fair trials. It's a circus, paid clowns babbling whatever bs that makes'em most money and making general public somewhat content about the show.
I can tell what's fair when I see such actions. Maybe Adobe and other corporations should understand not to treat individual people as they treat other corps. It may backfire other ways than to what they are prepared for.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
Threats are useless unless you mean it, and people know that you mean it. At the very least it would get the attention of a more mainstream audience.
Lives are already put at risk by this stupid law, in an indirect but very real way. It's the information equivalent of welding shut the hood of your vehicle and making it illegal to try and open it. The burden this puts on everybody will, in the long run, cost thousands, possibly millions, of lives. For instance, a medical researcher today can photocopy a useful page which may be the key to finding a drug that saves lives. Take away that convenience, and maybe he doesn't find the cure, or it takes him longer. It's hard to point and say - this guy died because of this law, but the effect is real regardless.
If people die fighting this law, it's unfortunate, but people often die fighting bad laws, and they die because of bad laws. As civilization advances a larger proportion of the economy is in the form of IP. The amount of benefit that people can gain from information is diminished by restrictions. The DMCA acts as an anchor on the advancement of civilization.
I'm not saying we should genuninely risk people's lives to fight this thing, but one has to accept some risk to do anything. Sometimes there is a greater risk from doing nothing.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
I'm bang alongside helping and protesting for Sklyarov, but are there any ways to donate for his family? I'm sure they've got enough concerns and expenses as it is.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
He did decide to sell the program. He sold it to his company for his salary. They paid him for it and he gave them the rights to distribute it.
The more important and more specific question is if he knew they would sell it in the United States. I guess that's one for the courts to decide.
Unfortunately, I think you're right. The mass of computer related professionals has no real organization. And like any other group, their opinions will run the gamut on this or any other issue. Not to mention, even the people who would like to shout in unison have families to support, jobs to worry about, etc.
"Blustering and Posturing". How frustrating. But true.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Developing the alternative ebook reader is not a crime in the country in which it was developed. He should be freed because of lack of juristiction.
Trafficking in the reader, is a crime in the US, and the effects are felt in the US (until the govt. firewalls us like China). However, it was Elcomsoft (codefendants) who were doing this, and not Sklyarov.
What Sklyarov is guilty of is the long-abhorred practice of being $NATIONALITY in vicinity of $CRIME. He's going to get nailed to the wall.
Yes, the nick is flamebait
I thought corporations were supposed to take away individual liability. Isn't that the whole point of them?
how about staging a book burning (or old adobe software burning) in front of Adobe offices..
Since that basically is what the DMCA fight is all
about anyways.. control of thought, expression and writing in the digital age.....ie book
burning in the modern acge a la Fairenheit 451..
This is a type of action that might make it clear to the mainstream press what this fight is really about... control over our expression, and companies attempts to control press, throw people
in jail for thoughtcrime...etc..
And why Adobe? Well, they started it, and as far
as I am concerned, it was companies like these
that lobbied/bribed/pressured our congress people
to get this law.. so now they can use all that
political power and money to get Dmitry out, and
then get rid of this law, or suffer the
consequences publicly in the street from us.
If you were to be arrested in, say, Afghanistan, because the company you work for is run by a woman (and is trying to do business there), would you meekly accept whatever punishment they meted out? After all, you tried to "push" your illegal woman-owned company there, right?
-Legion
Corporations limit finacial libility to the amount invested in the corporation, unless the investor commits a crime such as fraud.
Corporations do not limit individual criminal liability. Individuals are still and always should be responsible for their individual actions.
I would agree that there are many injustices in America, and basic freedoms being taken away. All that said, where exactly is a place to go that you could enjoy more freedoms?
I'll admit that Russia is beginning to look very attractive, but they still need to get their act together, and learn what ideas they need to reject from western democracies (like the DCMA... BTW) but still allow their citizens to enjoy basic freedoms.
China? Yeah, right.
Australia? A resonable choice, but it is becoming more like the US in all the wrong ways.
New Zealand? I don't know if they would appreciate it if a couple of million Americans suddenly showed up in their country (assuming a mass exodus). Still, it has some appeal to Americans wanting to get out of the country.
Anywhere in Europe? America is made of people who wanted to get away from Europe. I think both America and Europe are better for everybody leaving. (no pun intended)
Africa? Again... yeah, right.
India? WTF?????
Latin America? Heck, the United States needs to point guns just to keep people out. Brazil isn't too bad (I've lived there) but the governments in this region are still too unstable, and rather prone to military takeovers.
Canada? From the viewpoint of Americans, this is simply a country that should be called US-#2. I know canadians and that isn't exactly true, but at the same time, their laws tend to follow the US at least for things that affect the average person. Again, this is a good choice if you simply have to get away, but extradition is much easier from Canada than many other countries.
Middle East? And you want to go there for more freedoms? Yeah, right. Israel isn't too bad for the ordinary citizens, as long as you understand that everybody else in that region wants to kill you as an ordinary citizen. It is also hard to become an Israeli citizen if you are not a Jew.
Moon? Mars? Antarctica? At least there isn't a government at these three locations, but there are some rather important technological problems that need to be solved, and probabally a whole lot of money before you can even think of living in these places. The environmentalists would probabally have a hard time with a large, permanent settlement in Antarctica, which could only be successful anyway if they did mineral extraction (oil, natural gas, mining, etc.) The oil from Antarctica would be extreamly expensive.
Anyway... I'm just saying that America may have its problems, but so does the rest of the world. Instead, at least for now, you need to work with what you got and at least use the basic freedoms that you still have. That and be grateful that at least America will let you leave if you want for now. Indeed, leaving America isn't a problem, the problem is trying to get back in. Even as a US citizen.
I'm serious. If you find one that's really better, let us all know. From my researches, the Scandinavian countries look best from an all-around perspective, but they're not exactly encouraging immigration. Plus, they've been known to knuckle under to corporatism/imperialism. (I'm not knocking them for that, it's realpolitik.)
Good luck, and report back.
Why do you say that? Aside from Adobe's meaningless "oh, we didn't mean it" statement after their meeting with the EFF, they have shown no indication that they give a damn about Sklyarov. Until Adobe takes an affirmative step toward defending him, we can assume that his arrest and imprisonment is exactly what they want.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Of course he was indicted. Indictment simply means that there is enough evidence to warrant a trial. It says NOTHING about if the law is good or not. I says NOTHING about constitutional issues. ALL an indictment means is that there is ample warrant to apply the resources of the court system to trying this case because there is sufficient evidence to suggest that a guilty verdict is POSSIBLE (not probable or even likely, but POSSIBLE).
Now, here's a hint of what will happen next. There will be a hearing to discuss constitutional issues. The defense will raise the issue of the constitutionality of the DMCA and it's application. The judge will enter the hearing into the record of the trial but will proceed anyway. More than likely a guilty verdict will be returned. The defense will appeal based on the evidence supplied at the aforementioned hearing. At this point the courts will look at the constitutionality of the law and it's application. It won't happen before the appeal process. Prior to the appeal's court the judges aren't going to weight in on constitutional questions
This isn't a reason to "give up" on the american legal system. It is simply the way the system is designed to work. The legislative body has passed a law. A lower court is applying the law as it understands it. An appeals court will (likely) look at the wording of the law, how it was applied, and what it was intended to address and rule on the constintutional issues. It is precisely the way the system is designed to work. Moaning about "unfairness" at this stage is just demonstrating ignorance of the way the system works.
I seem to remeber a guy getting caned in China (or was it Hong Kong?) for breaking a law. I also seem to remeber the US population screaming and whining about the brutality and unfairness.
The little shit who did that committed the crime while in the country he was arrested in. Dmitry did nothing wrong while in the U.S.
Therefore I doubt Russia will raise a fuss, and I don't think Sklyarov should be set free. you don't break a country's laws (no matter how stupid), go to that country and expect not to get arrested.
See my comment to your first paragraph. If Dmitry did something wrong while in the U.S. (and I don't think giving a speech is illegal yet) then sure, he will have to be punished under U.S. Law. AFAIK, he did not write the eBook decryptor in the U.S.; he did that in Russia.
I'm no constitutional scholar, but the US constitution only applies to US Citizens and those on US soil. Dmitry never broke a law on US soil. Your reading would imply that that phrase has the meaning "Congress shall have the power ... to regulate commerce _in_ foriegn nations," which is patently incorrect.
If the US doesn't want people *buying* circumvention devices, they should have put that in the DMCA and prosecuted Americans for buying the program sold by Elcomsoft. That would have eliminated any nasty jurisdiction problem. Nowadays, the economy's global until an industry lobby group throws a few soirees in the nation's capitol. Then it's jingoism time.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
If you're going to supply a form letter at least make it readable:
Change that unreadable run-on sentence to something like: "This law is currently being used to quash the Free Speech rights of Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian computer programmer. Mr. Sklyarov was arrested after using his computer programming skills to demonstrate the serious security flaws in Adobe corporation's E-Book technology. Adding insult to this arrest, Mr. Sklyarov was held without bail for several weeks before being indicted." I also think any letter should emphasize that Sklyarov wasn't sneaking around, he was speaking at a conference on computer security.
For the berating, I do apologize. I was on my feet all day at LWCE and I was tired and exhausted. But I will not apologize for my main point.
There's a lot of unjust imprisonment in the world, but to focus on one to the exclusion of all else is counter productive. Yes, I said counter productive. The rest of the world is going to look at the protests and think "hackers only care about hackers, so this protest doesn't mean anything." They will be wrong, but that is what they will think.
People won't care about our issues until we care about theirs. And if no one cares about anyone else's issues, we cease to be civilized.
I don't want to berate anyone for rallying around Sklyarov. But I do want to open people's eyes tot he fact that Sklyarov is not alone.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
Perhaps he just forgot to check the "No Score +1 Bonus" box. I forget once in awhile. (It would be nice to have an option on your personal page to make it default to checked.)
I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
*instert obligatory "free Sklyarov" statements here*
Now, let's pretend for a moment that you are the executive branch of the US government. You see a law that the previous administration enacted that you don't like. How do you get rid of it? The executive branch is the only branch of the three that can neither create nor strike down laws. All they can do is (not) enforce it.
Bush and his people could try to convince Congress to modify the law, but the last time the DMCA went through there not so long ago, it got an awful lot of support. The idea might lose some votes this time around, but not many. (MPAA and RIAA represent a big chung of US exports, economic troubles, blah blah blah)
They could decide not to enforce it, more or less ignore the white-collar copiers and only bring it up against those that should be thrown in jail. Unfortunately, that still leaves the ugly wording of the law lurking under the surface to strike back at inopportune times (say, when the next president comes into office). Besides, if you slack too much in enforcing the law, you get impeached for not doing what you're supposed to be doing.
The only other real option they have is to get the courts to strike it down (or at least modify it majorly in their interpretation of it). But, when there's a good chance that the case will appear before a judge that you didn't help put into office, how do you make sure that the court decision goes your way?
By enforcing the law in the broadest and strictest way imaginable, in a way that not only blatently demonstrates the unconstitutionality of the law as-is (so the judge would have to be a complete and utter facist to let it stand), but also pisses off enough constituants to convince Congress not to try it again any time soon.
Is what is happening really some sort of "master plan" by the Attourney General, lying in wait until they got just the right kind of nudge from dim-witted CEOs at Adobe? Probably not, Occam's Razor being what it is. However, if it's not being done on purpose, then they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot by going forward with a case that's such an attention magnet.
You really can't expect much more than that out of someone who isn't claiming to be running the protest (nor has the time to organize a successful protest)
-bugg