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Interview with DMCA-challenger

Posted by michael on from the next-contestant dept.

BrianWCarver writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interview with Ben Edelman, the Harvard law student and internet researcher who is bringing suit against the DMCA with the ACLU. Slashdot covered the announcement of this legal challenge. To refresh your memory, Edelman wants to be able to research the lists of sites blocked by internet filtering software, and to be able to publish his research. He's no lawyer yet, but he responds quite well to several objections to the case."

5 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Liklihood of legal completion? by AgTiger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mr. Edelman: We've seen a pattern emerging of cases where legal action is threatened under the DMCA, but when push comes to shove, the entity making the threats backs off, and thus the law remains.

    What set of criteria do you feel must be present in a challenge to the DMCA that will give us our best hope of it being overturned, and do you feel your challenge meets these criteria?

  2. I for one.. by bsDaemon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    would be very glad to see this work out. Apparantly, the filter they use at my local public library uses filters a lot of stuff that isn't pornographic at all. My sister had a report to do about communism and was trying to do stuff there, but they blocked communist-related websites. my school for the longest time blocked http://www.gnu.org (the BSD websites were unaffected though). I also could not find stuff about UK politcal parties from school. They cut out a lot of stuff that is blatantly unconstitutional to cut.

  3. Re:He's no lawyer... by Amarok.Org · · Score: 3, Interesting
    There's a difference between understanding something and knowing how to apply knowledge in an expert fashion. Don't demean skills that you don't understand or appreciate.
    With all due respect for lawyers (geeze, never thought THOSE words would cross my lips...err...fingers), my point was NOT that any average schmoe can effective manage a court case. It was simply that your moderately intelligent layperson CAN understand legal issues, CAN understand legal documentation given the motivation, and CAN produce resonable and convincing legal arguments to support their positions.

    While not a lawyer myself (nor would I like to be), I do have significant experience in successfully managing legal affairs, lawsuits, etc without the benefit of law school, or even college for that matter. The resources are available for anyone to school themselves in procedure and nomenclature relating to legal matters.

    Much of what makes a lawyer effective is *NOT* their knowledge of the legal system. Laws, technicalities, etc... that can all be dug up by a minimum-wage intern with access to a decent law library and the Internet. What makes a good lawyer effective is their communication skills and being able to articulate their position.

    --
    -- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
  4. Is there some way to contribute fund? by fire-eyes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is there some way people can contribute to a fund to help with his legal costs?

    I'm not a rich man but i'd definately fork over us$40 towards such a fantastic and important cause.

    --
    -- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
  5. Librarian of Congress vs DMCA (2000) by WinPimp2K · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Umm...
    It seems to me that the Librarian of Congress reported a couple years back (as required by the DMCA) on specific exemptions to the DMCA that should be allowed. I believe two exemptions were recomended...
    One of them was specifcally to allow decryption of the list of blocked sites in censorware packages. Has this researcher or the ACLU considered this before mounting their "challenge" to the DMCA?

    --

    You either believe in rational thought or you don't