Author: JT Smith
New York Public Library, on the Island of Manhattan, there will be a rally
to free Dmitry Sklyarov.
Note that this is not an LXNY event, but rather the eighteenth of a series of rallies, whose Lead Organizer and First Contact is
Leonid Gorkin
lgorkin@excite.com or lgorkin1@nyc.rr.com
Do not bring any sticks to this rally.
There is a New York City regulation forbidding sticks at gatherings.
The New York City police officers who told us of this regulation were parfit gentle in their courtesy.
There have been and will be rallies in about twenty cities.
http://freesklyarov.org/calendar
Much of the organizing of New York City Rallies to Free Dmitry take place on the fairuse mailing list of NYFairUse, which list may be joined at
To download a flyer go to:
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/dmitry-links
For more information:
http://freesklyarov.org
http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov
http://eff.org
http://www.dibona.com/dmca
http://www.templetons.com/brad/free.html
http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0108.html
On the morning of 11 September 2001 the United States of America was attacked. One big objective of the attack is to drive us to forget our Bill of Rights. We will not forget. We have a right to use our computers in our homes as we see fit. We will defend this right.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/bor.html
This summer Dmitry Sklyarov was indicted. If convicted on all counts he faces 25 years in prison. He is accused of distributing a tool to manipulate files in certain Adobe formats. All manipulation occurs inside a single computer. The tool checks as best it can that the file it operates on is owned by the person running the tool. Under the DMCA, distribution of such a tool is a felony. If traditional copyright law were like the DMCA, then distribution of paper, pencils, ink, pens, and cameras would also be a felony. Today computers for home and business use contain no spy hardware nor any spy software, except for certain Trojans which may have slipped past the owner’s defenses. Under the DMCA and further federal legislation proposed by Senator Hollings all personal computers will be required to contain over one megabyte of spy firmware which will monitor every single read and write of the hard disk. Under the proposed legislation the operating system will report back to Infotainment Central any
“suspicious use” of the hard disk. Law enforcement agencies will easily get secret writs of computer tapping and be able to watch everything you do at home on what once was your own machine. Infotainment Central will be able to disable your computer without permission from you.
Indictment:
http://archive.nytimes.com/2001/08/31/technology/31HACK.html
http://cryptome.org/dmitry-indict.htm
http://cryptome.org/dmitry-burton.htm
Proposed legislation:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46655,00.html
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.090701.html
http://cryptome.org/sssca
http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0109.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/16/1647231
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/articles/conversations/0034.html
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/20/2047211
Our rallies and all the work of propaganda and education have been important in alerting the world to the threat facing not only Dmitry, but everyone who uses computers and everyone who uses the Great Commons of the Net. Despite our alert, the government of the United States chose to prosecute Dmitry. Our response must be clear, forceful, and effective.
Why do we rally at the New York Public Library? Because the Association of American Publishers has declared that they plan to close down all free public libraries. Their chosen tool is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. As demonstrated by the indictment of Dmitry Sklyarov, the DMCA does indeed outlaw fair use of books that you, or the library, have bought and paid for:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36584-2001Feb7.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-6545588-0.html
http://www.visi.com/~tneu/pro-book.html
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/23/pirate/index.html
http://www.macfergus.com/niels/dmca/index.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/reports/studies/dmca/comments
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/US_v_Sklyarov
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/US_v_Sklyarov/boucher_ashcroft_dmca.html
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/July01/ginsparg.archive.ws.html
http://arXiv.org/blurb/pg01unesco.html
http://xxx.lanl.gov
http://front.math.ucdavis.edu
http://www.baen.com/library/home.htm
http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/article.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/opinion/30LESS.html
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/08/07/lessig.html
http://www.immaterial.net/page.php3?id=44
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/articles/issue12/LU12-ebenmoglen.html
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu
http://cryptome.org
http://www.ala.org
We need marchers and leafleteers and copiers of leaflets and designers of leaflets and propagandizers and lobbyists and lawyers and coders and water carriers and publicists and diplomats. Come to the Rally and help! Come to the Rally and meet allies!
Dmitry Sklyarov today faces twenty-five years in prison for distributing a program which allows you to make fair use of books you have bought and paid for. Come to the Rally and help get Dmitry free! Free to go home and free to do his work.
Jay Sulzberger secretary@lxny.org
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York’s Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org
