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Bruce Perens Plans On-Stage DMCA Violation
cyber_rigger writes: "From this
article at infoworld Bruce Perens said he plans to break the DMCA
during a presentation on digital rights management (DRM) Friday afternoon
at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in San Diego. Technically, under the DMCA, Perens' explanation
of the technology makes him liable for a fine of US$500,000. You have to
admire his spirit."
You have to admire his spirit.
Translation: I'm an armchair activist.
I think everyone should go out and opportunities post information about to break stuff like that "violates" the DMCA.. printing flyers.. posting them everywhere.. hehe even sticking batches of flyers next to dvd players in major stores would be a good start.
Disclaimer: I'm from the Netherlands, so the heat is still a few kms in front of me...
What I don't understand is that Bruce Perens is an exception to the rule. Whatever happened to civil disobedience as a way to make unambiguously clear that the government has gone too far and needs to rethink it's policies.
If Americans don't stand up more forcefully, the US will either infect the whole world with their orwellian shite or (I sure hope this happens) they will at some point in the near future be ignored as something that a free country cannot follow without losing essential freedoms.
Three cheers to Bruce Perens and anyone who follows his example!
Simon
It is true that Felton was threatened with a law suit if he were to present non-functional speech on weaknesses in SDMI, but the RIAA would have gotten no where with a law suit, because Felton's speech would not function on its own.
Sklyarov was not arrested for speaking at DefCon. He was arrested because his company sold a copy of its DMCA violating software in the United States, and because he held the copyright on that software.
You can read section 1201 for yourselves. It says:
By the same token, you can publish specs on how to circumvent macrovision. You just can't traffic in the device itself.
I am not a lawyer. If you plan on taking my advice, talk to a lawyer first.
If "they" don't arrest him, can future arresties argue selective prosecution?
Bruce is merely region-unlocking. Its not even necessarily illegal, as it often involves simply hitting a few menu buttons. (Admittedly secret ones, so it COULD violate the DMCA) - Unfortunately, it's such a minor violation that the MPAA probably won't care - They're smart and most likely realize that trying to arrest Perens is silly and will just get their precious law overturned on them for... Nothing.
Now if he plays a DVD using one of the Linux DVD players - THAT is a different story, as all of them are illegal and based on DeCSS in some form. It should be clear that he is using the DVD EXACTLY as intended (Playing a Region 1 disc in Region 1), yet still breaking the law. Since it's based on DeCSS, it'll attract more attention from the MPAA since that's their pet peeve. Also, since he is using the disc exactly as intended, it makes his case that much stronger.
An interesting story: A friend of mine found a lawyer willing to help him with defense against an ITAR violation. (Read: Exporting strong encryption before the government eased up on regulations.) He then implemented RSA on his HP48 calculator. Calculator is now a munition. Justin lived in San Diego, so drove down to Tijuana. In the process of crossing the border, he carefully explained to the border guard/customs officer the exact manner in which he was breaking the law and should be arrested. Customs officer basically told him to fuck off, leave him alone, and go do his business in Tijuana.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The problem is that, no matter how much bureaucracy you make, it is still possible to get an unjust law passed. So trying to improve the system won't work.
The key is that Democracy allows for grass-roots reevaluation of legal precedent (through intentional civil disobedience or unintentionally [Scopes Monkey Trial]).
How many important US laws have been passed due to activism? Women's sufferage, Civil Liberties Act, etc etc.
Demonstrations are the most legally protected and peaceful. Civil Disobedience comes right after it.
The problem is when you decide that the system is beyond repair and so you take to illegal action with little interest in federal procedure. If Perens was just going to hand out a thousand Region-free copies of the Matrix or if he was going to assassinate the President, then he would only be breaking the law for his own self-interest. He isn't and that's why I wish him the best of luck.
What is music when you despise all sound?
Wouldn't it just be better to murder someone in front of all these witnesses? Less jail time, less of a fine.
Or he could embezzle a few billion from HP, and only have to spend 5 years in a white-collar resort prison.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
If you're going to use 'free speech' as a legal defense, why not turn it into performance art?
(Of course, if you can get {insert favorite attractive celebrity} to perform it, it would be an added bonus.)
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
I did. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~twm/embed/dmca.html
Everyone remember Edward Felton? The Princeton professor that was being threatened by RIAA/SDMI? They threatened to prosecute him for a DMCA violation, but backed down because they knew it wasn't a strong enough case for them. They'd be suing a professor for giving a lecture in an academic setting. That wouldn't go over well, and could end up weakening their position significantly. These organizations know which battles they should be fighting. They've done a good job so far of picking only the ones they are likely to win. I doubt they will go after Perens. It's just too risky. Of course it will probably become obvious at some point that your social standing has a lot to do with what you can get away with. When some dirty hacker does the same thing Bruce does and gets arrested, we'll see that quite clearly.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Bruce Perins wrote:
I did not discuss this with anyone at HP. Most of my Free Software activism is done representing myself or SPI, and not HP.
Fair enough, and pretty much what I expected. HP is a public corporation beholden to its shareholders, and shareholders generally do not like their companies taking activist stances.
I would say chances are pretty good that no legal action will come from your demonstration, but if legal consequences happen, just wanted to make sure you and others were aware that it might become a fight on two fronts, the direct legal battle, and a battle with HP over wage garnishment, even though HP is uninvolved in the demonstration.
Since I have your ear, a small idea: If you want to make extra sure that the trafficking clause is triggered, you could sell the hacked VCR to a member of the audience.
Best of luck, and I admire your courage in this matter.
----
Open mind, insert foot.
Imagine having to go door to door and explain that you're a registered sex offender and how you really just took a leak behind a tree and it's no big deal... how many people would believe that coming from a known sex offender?
Of course, public breast-feeding is an upheld right for mothers in many areas... it's a "natural bodily function".
The MPAA has a special email address for reporting "piracy" -- though I don't know of any planned piracy, it seems like the place that they would like to be told about violations of the DMCA as well, so I sent them this note:
5 6
- - - -
Dear Sirs:
I work for Slashdot (http://slashdot.org), a Web site concerned
primarily with free software, electronic freedoms, computer hardware and
other things of interest to computer enthusiasts, as well as to those
generally interested in online freedom. The DMCA (and the MPAA's
involvement in that and similar laws) are frequent subjects of the
postings and discussion at Slashdot.
I guess that someone at the MPAA is aware of Bruce Perens' demonstration
Friday afternoon of (mostly trivial) circumvention techniques which allow
consumers to view DVDs in contravention of the Digital Milenium Copyright
Act. If not, here is a URL which links to both a discussion of this
planned demonstration and an Infoworld article on it; several of the
comments made in this discussion come from Mr. Perens himself. (The text
of this note will be posted to the discussion as well, and you are invited
to respond to it there, if you woud like.)
URL: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/24/04152
Will the MPAA be pursuing action (filing a complaint) against Mr. Perens
for this public demonstration? If not, does this mean that other people
may also use similar techniques to enjoy their own DVDs without fear of
prosecution? I would also like to show people how to defeat annoying
region locks and encryption standards which make it dofficult to watch the
DVDs I have purchased.
I look forward to hearing from you; if the @hotline address is not the
right place to address this inquiry, I would appreciate hearing from you about where I should direct it instead.
Sincerely,
[signed, etc.]
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5