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As we reported a couple of weeks ago, Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian programmer and cryptographic researcher visiting the US for a conference was arrested in Las Vegas and jailed for more than two weeks on charges of "trafficking in a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures" in violation of the anticircumention provisions of the questionably-constitutional Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), for helping create software that decrypts the Adobe eBook format to bypass hampering restrictions that publishers may impose. On. Mon., Aug. 6, Dmitry was released on $50,000 bail pending trial in Silicon Valley, must remain in California, and has a pre-trial hearing slated for Aug. 23, 2001. Skylarov is restricted to Northern California. The U.S. Attorney will continue to hold his passport, which they confiscated when he was arrested. Father of two small children (2 1/2 year old son, 3 month old daughter) Sklyarov was was reportedly charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. ElcomSoft is the Moscow-based company employing Sklyarov. A firestorm of protest erupted on the Internet over the arrest, a boycott Adobe campaign was launched, and the Open Source and hacker communities, as well as free speech advocacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), reacted to the arrest with outrage. All of these factions believe the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is unjust, and that it should be repealed. After some sober second thought, and perceiving a PR disaster in the making, Adobe Systems flip-flopped and joined the EFF in recommending the release of Skylarov from US federal custody. Adobe also withdrew its support for the criminal complaint earlier lodged against Skylarov. However, the stolid Bushies have not released him, and apparently are still doggedly intent on prosecuting him under the DMCA. He faces up to five years imprisonment if convicted In a New York Times commentary, Stanford University law professor and EFF board member Lawrence Lessig wrote:
"Something is going terribly wrong with copyright law in America. Mr. Skylarov himself did not violate any law, and his employer did not violate anyone's copyright....
Skylarov is a casualty of the copyright wars. Complicating this fiasco is the fact that President George W. Bush's nominee to head up the FBI, Robert Mueller, is the person responsible for prosecuting Skylarov. This sorry affair illustrates once again how myopically out of touch with reality the intellectual property industries and the government are with regard to the obsolescence of the old copyright paradigms in the age of digital information exchange. While Adobe is now making a virtue of necessity by calling for Sklyarov's release, the Bushies have unfortunately been all too receptive to the obsolete industry point of view regarding the DMCA and copyright issues in general. What the Bush crew hasn't grasped, and the software, music, and film industries maybe have but are refusing to accept, is that in a digitalized world of Internet file sharing software and consumer CD-burners copyright as we knew it is dead. Shooting the messenger isn't going to change that. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is requesting that individuals concerned about freedom of speech and expression write to, call, fax and e-mail the US Attorney General's office and other Justice Department officials. A sample letter and phone script appears on the EFF Website here: The EFF notes that:
"It is most effective to send postal letters, faxes, phone calls, and e-mail, in descending order, to the head of the DoJ, the Criminal Division deputy, the Deputy Assitant in charge of computer crimes, and the Northern District of California US Attorney, in descending order. If you have only a little time to spare, please at least fax A.G. Ashcroft. If you have more time to spare, please work your way down the list, sending letters, faxes and email, and calling, each government representative in turn (some of the numbers are the same, but you can call/fax and address your comments to each person separately). For e-mail, mention who it is addressed to in the subject line or in a salutation at the top of the message body. If you don't have writer's cramp yet, try sending letters-to-the-editor to your local (and even some national) papers and other media outlets..."
A list of addresses, phone numbers, etc. of DoJ officials appears at the end of this article.
"Please remember to be polite but firm. Ranting, swearing, incohesiveness or lack of clear resolve will not make a good impression. Try to make it brief (1-3 paragraphs written, or a few sentences spoken) and clear, without getting into nitpicky details. "Super-activists" may also wish to send similar communiques to the office of the President, the Speaker of the House, the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, and the Majority and Minority leaders of both houses of Congress. See EFF's "Contacting Congress and Other Government Representatives" Factsheet for more information:
http://www.dmcasucks.org/has posted a list of members of the House Of Representatives Of The United States One Hundred Seventh Congress with phone numbers For more information about the US v. Sklyarov Case see:
For yet more information on the DMCA see:
Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) About the US v. Sklyarov Case:
For more information on the grassroots effort to free Dmitry Sklyarov, see:
To join the free-sklyarov mailing list, see:
Other Skylarov related sites and resources: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20932.html http://shingletowngap.org/mailman/listinfo/dmcasucks http://shingletowngap.org/mailman/listinfo/dmca-phx People to write/phone: John Ashcroft
Fax: +1 202-514-6113 (Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section)
Phone: +1 202-514-2601 (Criminal Division)
E-mail: askdoj@usdoj.gov
Other contacts: Michael Chertoff
Fax: +1 202-514-6113 (Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section)
Phone: +1 202-514-2601 (Criminal Division)
E-mail: askdoj@usdoj.gov
Mary Ellen Warlow
Fax: +1 202-514-6113 (Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section)
Phone: +1 202-514-1026 (Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section)
E-mail: askdoj@usdoj.govBR> attn: DAAG Warlow David Shapiro
Phone: +1 415-436-7200
Fax: +1 415-436-7234
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