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Sklyarov Denied Visa to Return to U.S. for Trial
Kurt Foss writes "Visa applications for Alexander Katalov and Dmitry Sklyarov of ElcomSoft were recently denied by the American Embassy in Moscow, jeopardizing their return to the U.S. in time for
the company to face criminal charges for allegedly violating
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) last year. The
already rescheduled trial is presently set to begin in the
U.S. District Court of Northern California on October 21."
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Ira Einhorn, or something around that spelling.
The guy your're talking bout is Ira Einhorn. France refused to extradite him because he could possibly face the death penalty in America. The circumstances are quite different than Skylarov's.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
Extradition is usually done for certain types of crimes, like murder for example. As far as I know Russia and the USA have not signed any extradition treaties for DMCA violations.
i seriously doubt they'd extradite Dmitry for this. For one, it was not illegal in russia, for another, it was not for a crime committed outside of russia where it was not a criminal act. So regardless of whether Russia extradites foreigners to the US, I don't see any reason why they would hand him over.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
You're welcome.
He should change his name to Mohammed Atta or Osama Bin Laden and he'd get right in.
They gave a visa to Mohammed Atta well after the September 11 attacks...
And plus, a terrorist isn't considered as much of a threat as someone that might give back fair use to the people...
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
From the Great Hacker Hall Of Fame, I bring you this, so that you will remember where it all started (Written by The Mentor for Phrack magazine in 1986). NEVER FORGET WHO YOU ARE!!
--->
\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/ by +++The Mentor+++
Written on January 8, 1986
Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"... Damn kids. They're all alike.
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,
ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world...Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.
I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain
for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...
Or feels threatened by me...Or thinks I'm a smart ass...Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.
And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...
You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
+++The Mentor+++
--->
Hey, don't forget about your Miranda rights. Miranda was a convicted rapist and a very bad man. The police never informed him of his rights (you have a right to remain silent, etc.) He got off (in more ways than one) and in return for the suffering of his victims we have the right to remain silent. Thanks for taking one for the team, ladies!
Okay, back to the topic:
If I were the defense, I would argue collusion between the DOJ and INS. They are working more closely in the post 9-11 era, you know.
that is correct.
PA cannot give Einhorn the death penalty under (1) conditions of extradition and (2) capital punishment was not available back when the crime occured (1977).
Also, it seems the jury will get the case tomorrow afternoon, closing arguments come tomorrow morning. (I live in Philly, and have been following the trial based on news reports.)
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
I hear you. They probably accused you of lying or something. I tried to go to Chicago for weekend a couple of years ago, entering under the visa waiver programme. I was going with my future in-laws to see my future sister-in-law run her first marathon. I was basically told that they didn't believe me and that I would probably disappear and turn up working illegally in Silicon Valley. Well, I would have probably spent well over $1,000 on that weekend, but the economy in Ottawa got the benefit of it instead. I was always brought up to be honest, but they make a mockery of it.
On another occasion, my parents came out from the UK to visit me in Canada. They took a road trip down to Cape Cod. At the border they saw a young British couple with similar holiday ideas being being hassled. The reason the border partol was giving? They were unmarried! So much for an open border certain prominent politicians in the US tried to blame for letting terrorists in to the country last year.
True irony is perhaps the highest form of humour.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Not in this case. In the case you cite the defendant absconded during the trial. Under English common law it is only necessary for the defendant to be present in court to actually enter the plea. Once the plea is entered and the trial has begun the trial can complete whether or not the defendant absconds.
This case is very different, the government is preventing the defendants from attending. They are clearly being denied due process and the government is not entitled to prosecute the case in their absence.
While the article is correct that the consular officials have autonomy I very much doubt that this is an accidental occurrence. There is no way the DoJ wants this trial to take place. The FBI would look like complete idiots, particularly when it becomes obvious that Freeh and Ashcroft were more concerned about copyright than terrorism. The whole point of the scheme was to make the incomming AG look like a tough crime fighter aggressively going after the threats to society that Clinton ignored. Thats why the arrest took place July 2001. I predicted that this would happen when the plea agreement was entered.
Stopping the defendants from appearing for the trial is the easiest way to get the case to fade from view with the least possible amount of fuss. Someone from the DoJ will have had lunch with someone from DoS.
The judge may throw the charges out or leave them on file until the statute of limitations expires. I don't know the federal proceedure. It is possible that the charges will be thrown out on other grounds, the jurisdicition claim looks somewhat dubious to say the least. While the US courts does allow for extra-jurisdicitional charges the courts tend to only do so when the act in question explicitly states that it claims to be applicable in foreign jurisdictions.
What might be interesting is if a civil lawsuit was filed against Ascroft as AG claiming that the case was brought to violate Skylarof's civil rights.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
A bit Off-Topic, but if you're talking about visas...
:)))
:))) Maybe US Embassy has a deal with Polish Telecom Ltd. :>>> That's a good business - to be an American embassador. :>
:> And this makes me really angry - if Poles are required to have a visa in US, the Americans in Poland should be the same. And vice-versa.
:)
:)
:)
Your (American) visa policy is very, very strange.
For example, if I wanted to go to US from my country (Poland), I'd have to call a number beginning with the prefix 0-700 and wait about 10 minutes for some chick at the US Embassy to answer my call. But I'm paying for that - even if my call isn't answered
In Poland, telephone numbers beginning with 0-700 cost ca. 30-40 times higher than the local phone calls.
After that, I'd have to register (after someone at the Embassy decides to answer my call!) via that telephone line, and few days later I'd have to wait in a queue in front of the US Embassy to fill in my papers. After few weeks of waiting I would know the results of the visa lottery (yes - it's a lottery - and it's an official name for that!)
If you're not drawn out by lot - it starts from the beginning - again, call the "hotline", stand in the queue, fill in the papers... etc.
The funny thing is that, Poles have got to have a visa to enter US, but - US citizens don't have to have one if they want to enter Poland.
This is the American way of "justice".
Moreover, 70% of Poles requesting a visa don't get one.
Thank God I don't have to (nor I want to) go to the USA.
The terrorists from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Afghanistan got your visas easily, but many peace-loving people from Poland (and other European countries) simply didn't - so this resulted in splitted families - e.g. husband in Warsaw, wife in NYC. And then George W. Bush says
to our president Aleksander Kwasniewski "Poland is our dearest and biggest friend in Central Europe".
Yeah, right. As it can be seen above.
"Dearest friends" are nearly banned (by the "visa lottery) from entering US, but islamic terrorists can go to US and learn how to fly...
So, the story about Sklyarov doesn't surprise me.
Just the usual business with US visa bureaucrats.
What happened to Mr. Sklyarov is just one of many proves for that jokes have something in common with the truth.
(mqs@space.pl)
Everyone in the world is held to US laws, EXCEPT US Law Enforcement Officials.
If those said US law enforcemnet officals ever go to Russia, they can expect to be captured, tried (if they're lucky), and jailed.
We've got a good 15-50 years of "supernationalism" until some agreed-upon mechanism for punnishing extra-national criminals is agreed upon. Probably by an extension of the UN War Crimes court into a body to deal with inter-country legal affairs that aren't War Crimes.
To whit; I can get on a boat chartered in China from California, hook up to an international communications system not owned by the USA, hack a server in Japan, go back to the USA, and ignore any legal threats on the basis that no applicable law makes what I did illegal. If I'm out of the country ANYWAY and I've got a good reason, I've got an even better situation.
Until I go to Japan, of course.
(IANAL; if you, knowing that I am not qualified to dispense legal advice, decide to act upon my suggestion, you should also jump into the ocean while you're out there and save the gene pool.)
Ironic that this is being modded as +1 Funny, because that's actually his defense!
This sig intentionally left justified.
Just to let you all know that its not just Dmitry Sklyarov. Its ALL people trying to get a visa that are being delayed.
"Russian scientist Vladimir Braginsky, who has visited the United States regularly over three decades, has been waiting since July for a visa to collaborate on a billion-dollar, taxpayer-financed project involving 13 nations to prove Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Despite many calls to officials in Washington, Mr Braginsky ''has been left hanging for three months'' without any information on the status of his visa, said Mr Kip Thorne, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology."
Same as the guy in California that tortured, killed and buried a lot of people around his place in the boonies in California, then bailed to Canada. No extradition unless the death penalty is dropped as a possible outcome.
The US has refused to ratify the treaty on the international criminal court because of the completely hypothetical possibility that US citizens might be tried elsewhere. I don't believe the US is going to subject its citizens to any form of foreign jurisdiction if it can help it.
Russia does not extradite own citizens in any case. If citizen commited a crime in other country, it will be punished in Russia and under russian laws.
Citizens of other states can be extradited, of course. But not for DMCA violation.
Well maybe I was not clear enough. Of course there were differences. Like no free (public) speech, no free elections, market economy, etc. Important differences.
Still, comparing this to People's Democratic Republic of Korea is an overkill. North Korea is a Stalin-type tyranny, where your private life is constantly under pressure from the State.
In the USSR in the 70s and 80s, nobody really believed the official ideology -- including the authorities themselves. It largely became a ritual, simple rules one should follow so that the state leaves you alone. You didn't criticize Brezhnev at party meetings, much the same way you don't (openly) hack cryptographic software in today's America. There were political prisoners, yes, but you needed to really press for it to become one.
To repeat the important point: the state was easy to ignore.
I don't believe this is possible in North Korea, or was possible in Russia in the 30s to 50s.
There were good sides to the regime, too (no wonder Communists are still popular here):
-- guaranteed minimum level of life, much more so than in today's Russia (well, that depended on oil prices, but still...)
-- better education system
-- much lower crime level. That, by the way, is a general tendency: less democracy => less crime.
-- less nationalism. Not that it was perfect. It was harder to enter a university if you were a Jew (I am). But that was nothing compared to today's anti-Caucasus sentiments of many Russians (including officials). I don't know how that translates to Korean situation, though.
I never thought I would defend Brezhnev times before anyone, honest. I would never want to go back. But there are different levels of badness.
Oh yes, I lived in Moscow. I don't think it was _that_ different from Novosibirsk.