---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 19:49:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Dkr. Armand Geddyn"
Reply-To: austin-cpunks@ssz.com
To: austin-cpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Subject: DMCA Protest on the Capitol steps, AUSTIN, Texas, MONDAY, 11am-12:30pm
"DMCA Protest on the Capitol steps, AUSTIN, Texas, MONDAY, 11am-12:30pm"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dkr. Armand Geddyn
Michael Badnarik 2002 Libertarian Campaign
LAS VEGAS - On July 16, the American FBI arrested Russian citizen and PhD
candidate Dmitry Sklyarov, after his presentation on encryption techniques
and standards of Adobe's popular "eBook" format.
Sklyarov is the first programmer to be arrested under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and is currently being held in a Las
Vegas prison, awaiting extradition to California to face charges filed by
Adobe. He has reportedly been denied contact with his employer, peers, or
family. Sklyarov is, in short, a political prisoner as a result of the
U.S.'s draconian copyright and intellectual property laws.
What is the DMCA?
Public Law No. 105-304 was signed into law by Congress October 28, 1998,
and is often referred to as "the DMCA" or "the WIPO." In short, it is a
fundamentally flawed and grossly unconstitutional act which, in part, makes
it a federal crime to conduct and present otherwise legitimate
cryptographic research.
What does this mean?
Imagine a toy secret decoder ring. Someone explains to you how to decode a
secret message using that secret decoder ring. That person can be arrested
for "trafficking in a product designed to circumvent copyright protection
measures," if Adobe uses this simple encryption to "protect" its eBook
content (which it does -- Adobe specifies ROT13 as part of its encryption
standard). This is exactly what happened to Dmitry Sklyarov, when he
explained a method for decrypting eBooks for legitimate, personal use.
Another example is if Congress had passed a law banning the possession or
sale of paper clips, hair pins and wire clothes hangers, because such
insidious technologies could be used to pick locks, escape from
handcuffs, or steal cars. In fact, they may as well have passed a law
making it illegal to simply TALK about picking locks with hair pins.
What can you do?
Join Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik (www.badnarik.org), the
Ministry of Truth, and the Austin Cypherpunks on MONDAY, July 23, at the
Capitol steps to show your support for Dmitry Sklyarov's plight and your
opposition to the grossly unconstitutional DMCA. We expect there to be TV
news representatives on the scene, so please be prepared to explain the
effects of the DMCA concisely and succinctly.
Where can I learn more?
Read up on the DMCA Legislative History, at:
http://www.hrrc.org/html/DMCA-leg-hist.html
Read the Department of Justice's press release:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/US_v_Sklyarov/20010717_doj_sklyarov_pr.html
Read the Slashdot and Pigdog Journal reports, at:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/17/130226&mode=thread
http://www.pigdog.org/auto/scary_tech/link/2155.html
Michael Badnarik is expected to speak on this and other Libertarian issues
on Austin's KLBJ 590 AM radio, Saturday, July 21, between 9 and 10pm.
--
Dkr. Armand Geddyn | ageddyn@minitru.org
"You can get more with a kind word and a
2x4 than you can with just a kind word."
- Ben Franklin
