DMCA Attacks: NAI Tells Sites To Remove PGP (Updated)

daecabhir writes: "I am on Declan McCullough's excellent policy and technology mailing list, and received this article on Declan's Politech web site. Basically, Network Associates now appears to be using the DMCA to force sites that provide access to the "free" versions of PGP to cease and desist, if this is any indication. Unfortunately, I think that Network Associates may well be within their rights with regards to 'their' intellectual property, even if I disagree with the manner in which they are going about things." Update: 05/22 13:55 GMT by T : Looks like this wasn't the whole story, and in fact NAI was only objecting to a site with the commercial version of its software -- read below for more. Grant Bayley writes: "The hype being generated by the "NAI pulls out the DMCA stick" postings and the spectre of PGP being "removed from the Internet" is entirely bogus, and provably so with a little bit of fact checking.

Looking through the Google cache, it becomes very clear very quickly that crypto.radiusnet.net was hosting a copy of the commercial version of the software - not a copy of the PGPi (aka freeware) version of the PGP product. Given that this is the case, NAI is well within their rights to demand the removal of the files.

You can confirm this in the Google Cache.

Comments

Conspiracy!

[Devil's BSD]

I find it interesting how Network Associates bought out PGP, then killed it, and is now trying to shut it down. Although it may be a long shot, could it be that the government is behind this? The government did not want PGP to be released in the first place because they thought it would threaten security...
and for those still looking for PGP and unwilling to use GPG, there's still KaZaA.

Re:I am not a lawyer

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure:

Wealthy Client: I want that stuff down.
Lawyer: Okay.
[to host] Take that down. Or else.
Host: F*ck that. I've got First Amendment rights.
Lawyer: Ha. [sends obscure legalese email] Here's a ridiculously vague DMCA notice.
Host: I don't understand this crap.
Lawyer: Good. You're not supposed to. But I'll be generous and tell you anyway. It says that if you take this stuff down, you won't be liable for [insert Carl Sagan voice] billions and billions of dollars for copyright infringement.
Host: Oh. Okay.... I guess. [deletes information]
Lawyer: Muahahaha.

Re:Hm.

[Anonymous Coward]

You profess to be worried about security .. and you admit to using Outlook?

I'm not snickering, it's the guy beside me, honest.

DMCA...

[jmv]

Under the DMCA, I ask you to keep your dog from sh... on my lawn!!!

Has the word DMCA been recently accepted as a synonym for "generic laswuit"?

Re:Haiku!

[corebreech]

nsa retards
are fucking with my freedom
and i pay these guys!