[Free-sklyarov-uk] open letter

[Anton Chterenlikht]

Dear all,

Following is an open letter to the US ambassador. The idea is to ask
people to sign it during our protest and then pass it to the embassy.

So it can be a one page letter and attached pages for signatures
(hopefully there will be more than a page of them).

Here is a draft of this open letter based on the letter written by
Richard Kay. Please feel free to make corrections. Maybe it contains
some technical details which can confuse people on the street. Maybe we
can change those to something else to make this letter easier to
understand and more appealing to the humane side of this injustice.

anton

---------   beginning of the letter -----------------

Dear Ambassador,

We are writing to express our disgust concerning the way the FBI has
conducted itself with regards to Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian programmer
now wrongfully imprisoned in the US.

Mr. Sklyarov gave a talk at a computer security conference in the US on
the security weaknesses of Adobe's eBook product, which were apparently
easily discovered. Instead of thanking Mr. Sklyarov for his work, the
Adobe software company complained to the FBI who detained Mr. Sklyarov
for allegedly violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

We do not dispute the principle that copyright holders should be free to
apply encryption technology to secure their works. However, it is
obvious (thanks to Elcomsoft, the Russian company Mr Sklyarov works for)
the protection given by Adobe's eBook products is substandard and easily
overcome. The field of study Mr Sklyarov is engaged in has entirely
legitimate usages, for example, enabling Adobe eBook products to be used
by blind people and those with other disabilities.

The imprisonment of Mr Sklyarov - and this use of the DMCA - represents
a threat to the freedom of expression of programmers and software
academics everywhere, should we express our views on security issues
affecting substandard products which the DMCA is apparently intended to
protect and then be foolish enough to visit the US. It also presents a
situation for programmers resident in the US which denies them basic
freedoms which your constitution claims to protect.

Software academics and programmers can, for certain purposes, only
effectively express themselves to their colleagues through the
discussion and publication of program source code. Suppression of this
right cannot be justified on the same or similar grounds that make
slander, libel or shouting "Fire" in a crowded theatre offences. Those
who deny fundamental human rights of freedom of expression become
tyrants, and the countries they misrule become police states. We might
also mention that developing competitive parts, systems or peripherals
which comply with proprietary interfaces has long been considered fair
use rather than a breach of copyright.

Would you imprison consumer product reviewers if they published
weaknesses in proprietary door locks to encourage substandard lock
manufacturers to improve their products ?  If not, then Dmitry Sklyarov
should be freed and the DMCA must be repealed or amended if the good
reputation of the US, as a place of freedom of expression and democracy,
is not to suffer.

-------------  end of the letter  -----------------