--- begin forwarded text
Priority: normal
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 14:33:55 -0400
Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Michael Sims <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Chilling effect (was Re: Media Giant To Sue Itself over DeCSS
Links?)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Seth Finkelstein wrote:
> Regarding DeCSS, Kaplan is very clear. Even if the publicity
> spreads the code far and wide, he will "serve notice" that the courts
> *can* and *will* come after anyone who does not have the desired
> "appropriate respect for intellectual property rights".
>
> As I keep trying to convey, these sort of rulings *work*.
> Maybe not 100.0%, not to every programmer in every situation. But I
> think the benefit that the plaintiffs got out of Kaplan's ruling is
> well worth any number of mirrors and folk songs.
Here is a story submission received by slashdot.org today:
=============================================
[redacted] writes "I am a student at Northwestern University and just
got locked out of my account because my webpage had a copy of the DECSS
code. Apparently the university got the threatening letter [link to
2600.com's post today] instead of me, and so they have just locked me out
of my account and have gotten the university lawyers involved. 2600 is
calling for everyone to post the DECSS code, but if people are really
going to start getting in trouble for this stuff, some of the charm of
all this electronic activism is going to start to rub off. The
corporations may not have a good idea about the nature of code and the
net, but they *do* have powerful legal teams that can lean quite heavily
on activists."
=============================================
I don't believe it could be said any better.
This is one of a dozen or more similar submissions received today. ISP
accounts cancelled. DSL lines taken down. Etc.
The war is very real, and people are getting hurt. Oh, I suppose they
aren't bullets, but the harm can still be substantial. If the above
person is banned from the school computer system and flunks out, the harm
will be significant indeed.
Lawyers on this list who have an ounce of activism in their bodies ought
to consider taking sides, and doing more than yakking on cyberia-l. It
is myopic and wrong to assume that eventually, everything will work out,
and all these silly corporations will realize they "can't" censor the
net, and take their silly notions of copyright law and go home. There is
every chance that this war will be lost, and lost thoroughly.
--
Michael Sims - The Censorware Project - http://censorware.org
Your Rights Online - http://slashdot.org/yro
Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true.
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
