[Free-sklyarov-uk] Flyer

[Dan Ackroyd]

Hi Anthony, welcome to the group,


>Now, as I (perhaps wrongly) understand it, Sklyarov was
>arrested because he passed on information at the
>conference (through his talk) which contravened the DMCA,
>not for actions he took while in Russia.

The full 'Affidavit for complaint' can be found at:

http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/US_v_Sklyarov/20010707_complaint.html

The relevant part of it is from the end:

<snip>
Based on the foregoing, I believe Dmitry Sklyarov, ... has willfully and for
financial gain imported, offered to the public, provided, and otherwise
trafficked in a technology, product, service, and device that is primarily
designed or produced for the purpose of circumvention a technological
measure that effectively controls access to a work 
<snip>


Dmitry wrote part of the program in Russia and it was the company he worked
for which sold the software over the internet.
All the actions of Dmitry and Elcomsoft (the company who he works for) are
legal in Russia, where you are allowed by law to make backup copies of your
data.

The affidavit seems to imply that it was the actions of Elcomsoft that he
was arrested for.

The only things Dmitry did in the US were:
1) To talk about the program
2) Give out about 15 demo disks with a limited version of the program that
will de-crypt the first 10% of an e-Book.

but as the affidavit was completed on 10th of July, five? days before he
gave his speech and handed the disks out, it seems that these were
irrelevant to his arrest. (But boy will they get mentioned at his trial, if
he doesn't get out first)

So in summing, the FBI decided to arrest Dmitry before he even reached
America and gave his speech, as they thought he had broken a US law in, er,
Russia.

cheers
dan


>From slashdot.org
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=01/07/30/1731253&cid=35

Bizarro Earth: Where a talented engineer who has been imprisoned by a
repressive USA government longs to return to Russia so he can be free. Could
any of us imagined this scenario 15 years ago?
-Patric



-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Fisher [mailto:aef at cloudband.com]
Sent: 01 August 2001 11:57
To: free-sklyarov-uk at xenoclast.org
Subject: Re: [Free-sklyarov-uk] Flyer


> "Julian T. J. Midgley" wrote:
> 
> > I've put a copy of Anton's flyer on the web page in PDF, Postscript and
> > Word formats.  Could people have a quick look at it and check that it
says
> > all we want it to say?

 <delurk>

 Hi all,

 I've just joined the list, so please forgive me if this
has already been covered, but I have query regarding
the part which reads "He has committed no crime."

 Now, as I (perhaps wrongly) understand it, Sklyarov was
arrested because he passed on information at the
conference (through his talk) which contravened the DMCA,
not for actions he took while in Russia. If I am correct,
this would leave "He has committed no crime." as a legal
opinion which is somewhat open to debate. I would
certainly agree that the clauses (of the DMCA) in
question are morally wrong, inconsistent, contrary the
the US's own constitution, etc, but I am wary of making
factual errors which could be taken up and used by the
opposition.

 Anthony Fisher


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