Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)
Arlen Walker wrote:
>
> "Dmitry Sklyarov, a lead programmer for Russian software company ElcomSoft,
> was arrested Monday morning for distributing the company's Advanced eBook
> Processor."
>
> In short, he wasn't just talking about a discovery; he was handing out
> software that exploited the discovery, and it was the latter act, not the
> speech, that he was arrested for.
>
> People, Techwriting is about research and accuracy. We should all be expert
> fact-checkers at the very least.
In the cause of careful fact-checking, may I point out
that under the US legal system, being *arrested* for
having done something and *actually* having done
something are by no means the same thing. Which is
why there are courts.
And it's also worth pointing out that what he was arrested for is perfectly legal in his home country, where the owner of software has the legal right to make a backup copy.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is an evil thing. It may not affect most of us personally, because we're doing work for hire, but the problem is that copyright is supposed to be a _balancing_ of rights -- some to the creator of the work, some to the purchaser of the work. The problem with the DMCA is that it gives all the rights to the creator. He can create an e-book that can't be printed, can't be moved to another machine, can't have a backup copy made (or pages copied for fair use) -- all rights that are taken for granted with real-world books.
Here's an essay on the subject that I agree with:
http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0108.html#6
(caveat: I work for the author)
Here's another chilling development; a noted Dutch cryptogpraher claims to have broken Intel's encryption system for digital video, but says he won't publish for fear of being prosecuted or sued under DMCA. How can this create better products? It's like encrypting something with Pig Latin, then suing someone under the DMCA because they've figured out how to decode it.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/236
--
Beth Friedman / bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com
"If you grew up in Chicago, you knew everything there is to know about pain by the time you were ten years old. That's why there aren't so many psychiatrists in Chicago. 'Cause we have the Cubs. If you can learn to forgive your parents and the Cubs, you can save yourself $25,000."
--Steve Goodman
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
References:
Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings): From: Arlen . P . Walker
Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings): From: Michael West
Previous by Author:
re: uninstalling DEVA tools for Dreamweaver?
Next by Author:
Re: Assumptions, the audience and arithmetic?
Previous by Thread:
Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)
Next by Thread:
Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads