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Dmitry Sklyarov Gains High-Profile Defense Lawyer
Diesel Dave writes: "There's an
article on Law.com about Dmitry Sklyarov's new Lawyer.
Renowned San Francisco defense attorney John Keker has agreed to represent the Russian programmer pro bono. Keker is quoted as saying:
"I think he is being unjustly accused and that's the kind of case I like to do." and "[The Government is] always welcome to dismiss the case, but we didn't come in to make a plea deal." This gives me the impression he has full intensions of fighting this to the end. Good."
Given the current anti-tech rage being promoted in the US media this is a brave decision which should be applauded. While it is quite clear that this is a ridiculous case these are rapidly becomming ridiculous times.
"Ex-Commie tries to undermine US companies" is an all to easy headline to imagine. Its excellent that he has this defence lawyer, that should drive him into freedom, but the fact remains that the Don't Mind Capitulating Act is liable to get stronger rather than weaker... will Bush make this the one case where there isn't a back door to cryptography... probably.
This sort of thing is part of the reason why the US is now in recession, the driving of large corporations at the expense on innovation.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Okay, so we don't kill all the lawyers.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
On a side note, this case has gotten much more attention in international circles than it has in the US.
At my university I've met a woman from Ukraine who claims that for a while, atleast, there was daily coverage of the Skylarov predicament in the Ukrainian newspapers. Much like our terrorist coverage continues to dominate the news here in the land of the home, and the free of the brave.
For a moderately non-technical person, she seemed to have a very good grasp of the issues, albeit with a touch of (IMHO justified) "the US is doing this because they can" spin.
Well, I digress. Congrats, Dmitry. I hope you make it back to Russia before I visit there this winter.
-Peter
. Penguins Surely Ca
I really hope that Dmitry Skylarov can go home to Russia soon.
Yes! Go home! Quick, Dmitri, go back to Russia! Your presense here is showing Americans how stupid our legal system is and our people can't possibly remain ignorant for much longer! Shoo! Shoo!
Why bother.
Actually, he's already high-profile enough that he doesn't need the advertising. He can already pretty much name his fee.
:) But contrary to popular belief, most of them are not soulless, money grubbing ambulance chasers.
Sure, maybe he can charge a couple more bucks-- but that'll hardly balance out with what he would've made charging a different client during the hours he spends on this case. And sure, maybe he enjoys being in the papers; and maybe his clients expect that from him.
But basically, he's already got plenty of money, and his practice is plenty successful. If he were just in it for the money, he wouldn't take this case. You'll find that a lot of defense attorneys (and prosecutors) really care about what happens to their client. Sure, Keker's probably not some anti-DMCA zealot, but he wouldn't have taken this case if he didn't think Sklyarov's prosecution was unjust.
Yes, cynicism is good, and with lawyers, it's doubly important.
How about the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and any other common law based country? Their entire system of law is based around the body of prior court decisions.
Precedent is powerful. It demonstrates what the higher courts decided was meant by the law, because they let the decisions stand...
Jason Pollock