[ale] DMCA Protests

[Chris Woodruff]

I thought I would send this out to the ALE population.  There is a community
declaration concerning the DMCA. Sign your name up and let the people in
power know how you feel.  http://www.dibona.com/dmca/index.shtml

I also wanted to send out the names and addresses of the people that
represent us in Georgia.  I would strongly urge that we all write them each
a snail mail letter (they do not really take email that seriously) and let
our people in Washington know that the DMCA is not the solution to protect
copyright holders.

Here's the President's address:

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500-0001

Your representative? The House maintains a site here where it will tell you
who your rep is after you tell them what your state and ZIP code are. Don't
know your ZIP+4 code is? Go to the USPS site and put your address in here to
find out. After you find out who it is, their address is on their website.

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.htm

Senators? The Senate's web site maintains a list of the addresses (and phone
numbers) of all current Senators organized by state here

http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm

I have saved us Georgians some work and listed the names and addresses of
our Senators below:

Cleland, Max  (D - GA)
461 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510

Miller, Zell  (D - GA)
257 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510



Below is a stock letter that can be used or modified as you choose.

July 21, 2001

The Honorable Zell Miller
257 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

Dear Congressman Miller,

I am attempting to convey to you my concern about the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). Recent events have deepened my concern, and as one of
your voting constituents, I ask you to work towards the repeal of the DMCA.

While I am fully in favor of creators retaining control over distribution of
their works, the DMCA goes several steps further. The "anti-circumvention"
provision restricts time-honored Fair Use rights of consumers, and
essentially also destroys the First Sale doctrine. These, in and of
themselves, could be considered a reason to work towards its repeal.
However, the actual situation is much worse.

(Any references given in this letter are World Wide Web links, I don't have
access to the necessary hard copy.)

The DMCA has had a chilling effect on academic research. Professor Edward
Felten, a distinguished professor, who was also one of the lead witnesses
for the Department of Justice in the Microsoft anti-trust trial, was
recently prevented from delivering an academic paper on information hiding
and watermarks (see http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA). This sort
of chilling effect is precisely what the First Amendment is designed to
prevent.

Again, that would be sufficient to work towards overturning. Even worse,
however, the criminal provisions of the DMCA have been invoked against a
Russian national, Dmitry Sklyarov, who performed "anti-circumvention" work
in Russia for his employer, where he broke no Russian law. He came to the US
to deliver a speech about his work, and was arrested subsequent to that
speech. This sets a dangerous precedent. What would the US government do, if
a US citizen was arrested for violating foreign law, while the act was
performed in the US where it was perfectly legal? Needless to say, the irony
of this occurring to a Russian citizen is immense, and embarrassing to the
United States.

Here are some references to the Sklyarov case:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45298,00 .html (Wired)

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/2001/jul/18/512096646.htm
l (Las Vegas Sun)

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010718/n17166094_2.html (Reuters)

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nyt/20010718/tc/u_s_arrests_russian_cryptograph
er_as_copyright_violator_1.html (New York Times)

Congressman Miller, please help ordinary people by working to repeal this
draconian law.


Sincerely,


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