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  • From: Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Geeks want to "Free Dmitry" -- but Congress says keep him in jail
  • Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 13:58:45 -0400 (EDT)


The specific congressman who loves the DCMA from NC, Howard Coble (who is
the figure in Don Henley's "Inside Job" song about screwing the recording
artists with bad legislation).

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45522,00.html

Congress No Haven for Hackers
By Declan McCullagh (declan AT wired.com)

2:00 a.m. July 25, 2001 PDT

WASHINGTON -- Even as the world's geeks march against the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, key legislators and lobbyists are dismissing
concerns about the controversial law as hyperbole.

The law that led to the arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov
last week and an immediate outcry among programmers continues to enjoy
remarkably broad support on Capitol Hill. No bill has yet been
introduced in Congress to amend the DMCA for one simple reason:
Official Washington loves the law precisely as much as hackers and
programmers despise it.

"The law is performing the way we hoped," said Rep. Howard Coble
(R-North Carolina), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on
intellectual property.

The FBI arrested Sklyarov last week in Las Vegas for allegedly
"trafficking" in software that circumvents the copy protection
techniques that Adobe uses in its e-book format. Under the DMCA,
selling such software is a federal felony punishable by up to five
years in prison and a fine of $500,000.

"As far as I know there have been very few complaints from
intellectual property holders," Coble, the chief sponsor of the DMCA,
said in an interview Tuesday. "I am also encouraged by the Department
of Justice's actions in this matter to enforce the law."

When Congress approved the DMCA in October 1998 after about a year's
worth of little-noticed debate and negotiations, it was hardly a
controversial bill. The Senate agreed to it unanimously, and a
unanimous House approved it by voice vote, then bypassed a procedural
step that would have delayed the DMCA's enactment.

Since the House procedure says attempts to rewrite copyright law must
start in Coble's subcommittee, the odds of a DMCA rewrite in Congress'
lower chamber seem remote.

Coble's counterpart in the Senate, California Democrat Dianne
Feinstein, feels the same way.

"We need to protect copyrights and this law was designed to do that,"
said Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, who chairs the Senate
Judiciary subcommittee on technology. "She's not looking to change
it."

[...]

But in the world of Washington politics, geektivists are woefully
outnumbered by the natives who populate and influence confirmation
hearings: Corporate, nonprofit and trade association lobbyists.

"We believe that a careful effort was made by Congress to balance the
rights of intellectual property owners and the rights of intellectual
property consumers," says Allan Adler, vice president at the
Association of American Publishers, which applauded Sklyarov's arrest
last week.

[...]

The Free-Dmitry movement argues that programmers should not be
prosecuted for creating software that can circumvent copyright
protection -- since such tools have many legitimate uses, such as
reading an e-book on another computer, as well.

But DMCA aficionados say there are precedents for broad prohibitions
on selling devices that can have both legitimate and illegitimate
uses.

Current federal law makes it a felony to own, distribute or advertise
for sale bugging or wiretapping devices that are "primary useful for
the purpose of surreptitious interception of wire, oral or electronic
communications." That applies even to parents who might want to
monitor what their young children are doing, or to other commonplace
uses.

You're also not allowed to possess hardware or software such as cell
phone cloning devices that let you "obtain telecommunications service
without authorization" -- even if your motives are pure.

[...]






  • Geeks want to "Free Dmitry" -- but Congress says keep him in jail, Paul Jones, 07/25/2001

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