First Amendment - Void Where Prohibited

First Amendment - Void where prohibited

You may not know it yet, but the freedom to speak truthful information has been abolished.

Oh, you can still chat with your friends - they don't have enough of a police force to stop you yet. They'll get around to you next.

Right now they're after the security experts.

You see, the computer software, motion picture, and music industries have bought themselves a law - and for them it's a good one.

It basically makes it illegal to distribute information about any security system used by these industries, if the information is detailed enough for a computer to use. (thus becoming a "device" under law) The law is called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and was signed into law by Clinton in 1998.

For a recent example of this law in action, we can look at Adobe - a software company that makes software for releasing books in electronic form.

The security system they use is so weak as to be negligent. It is the digital equivalent of a bank, leaving its doors unlocked and having a post-it note with the combination of the vault on the vault door.

When confronted with the problem - they responded, not by fixing the problem - No! Why do that when they have this brand new law to use instead!

Adobe's strategy was to leave the security system hopelessly broken and vulnerable, and just have anyone jailed who tries to talk about it. I know I wouldn't want to trust my information to this strategy - but they evidently think that they'll be able to keep this a secret from their customers by arresting anyone who dares tell them.

A Russian security expert is currently facing the possibility of 5 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for visiting this country and trying to tell (and demonstrate to) people how flawed the security systems in Adobe products really are! These same security systems were sold to people as being "industrial grade" - people have been charged thousands of dollars for these products, because Adobe advertised this format as secure. Every Adobe ebook customer who has put their trust in Adobe's security system has been swindled - as Adobe substituted something that could have been written by a first year high school student instead of using real encryption.

In order to prove that the security system is flawed, this security expert provided a demonstration program that would "unlock" Adobe's security. Even though this program was created and marketed in another country - and thus would not be subject to US laws at all, the FBI arrested the expert after he finished giving a speech on the subject of the security system at a security conference.

The FBI claims that since his demonstration program was available over the Internet to all countries, his publication of the program on the Internet automatically made him subject to jurisdiction in the US courts.

This is a VERY dangerous precedent.

Imagine:

Web site operators of religious web sites in the US being arrested when visiting foreign countries for speaking out against the doctrine of the Muslim faith (which is illegal in some Muslim dominated countries).
A web site operator in the US that has historical information on World War II might be arrested for operating the web site if they ever visited France - where many of the German propaganda videos are illegal..
The Chinese government might arrest visitors from the US for having spoken out against communism in their own country!

This precedent basically subjects every citizen publishing on the internet to the laws of every country - and as we all know from Social Studies class - not every country has a First Amendment like we do.

How can someone even know the laws of all of the countries in the world? Putting something on the Internet should NOT automatically place the account holder under all world laws.

If this outrage is not stopped, the First Amendment might as well be repealed - since the laws of the least free countries in the world will be binding on the entire internet. .

You can help fight this battle by:

1. Writing your Representatives and Senators in the US Congress expressing your outrage with this incident and demanding that the law be repealed. The law in its entirety can be read at http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DMCA/hr2281_dmca_law_19981020_pl105-304.html

2.Donate to Dimitri Sklyarov’s defense fund at https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=dmitry%40shmoo.com&item_name=Dmitry+Sklyarov&no_shipping=1 or to the EFF who is providing his representation at http://www.eff.org.

3.Boycott Adobe products. Hit them where it hurts, their pocketbook. Don't upgrade your current Adobe products. Visit http://www.boycottadobe.com for more details.