On 07/23/2001 - 23:55, Tim May wrote:

On Monday, July 23, 2001, at 11:05 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote

...

True. And I'll agree with you, this time -- I think the Feds will, in the end, drop this case, if the protests continue.

And I'll bet the Feds drop it because their corporate backer, Adobe, has abandoned them. They don't like to be left twisting slowly in the wind. And the more Adobe now tries to "spin" their role, the more the Feds are left twisting.

The Feds may be in a maze of twisty little press releases, all different, but if they drop it, I'd bet it's not Adobe 'abandoning" them, but Adobe *asking* them to drop it, quietly in the back room, trying to stop bad PR against Adobe. It doesn't really bother the Feds - they can get credit for being responsive to urgent requests, they've gotten publicity for busting yet another hacker copyright thief, and they don't have to take any heat for backing down because they can spin it all as "Adobe's Dropping Charges". If they *do* continue, it's because they're getting pressure from other DMCA pushers - they'll need to do a bit more spin, but they can handle it, and most of the people who would object already didn't respect them. Won't bother their public image much. My guess - a couple more days in custody, and they kick him out of the US. X-Authenticated-User: idiom ~~~ Thanks; Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>