[UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)

[Tim Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: Epoch <msulliva at wso.williams.edu>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)


> > Not entirely true.  There's some bozo-no-no's, like child pornography,
and,
> > oddly enough, anything that would assist you in cracking digital
encryption
> > (a la the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which threatens to blow the
> > concept of fair use out of the law books).
>
> Are you sure that's till the case with the encryption thing?  A lot of the
> sillier encryption laws were relaxed last year -- you can export strong
> encryption, for example.

Check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and their attempts to help
2600,
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20010510_ny_eff_augment_order_pr.
html summarized here:

The case arises from 2600 Magazine's publication of and linking to a
computer program called DeCSS in November, 1999 as part of its news coverage
about DVD decryption software. DeCSS decrypts movies on DVDs that have been
encrypted by a computer program called CSS. Decryption of DVD movies is
necessary in order to make fair use of the movies as well as to play DVD
movies on computers running the GNU/Linux operating system.

The Movie Studios have sued 2600 Magazine under a 1998 law that prevents
even the publication of programs that can decrypt DVDs or other digital
media. Most recently the law was used to frighten a Princeton Computer
Science Professor, Edward Felton, from presenting a paper describing how to
break proposed watermarks on CDs at a scientific conference. For more
information see:  http://www.acm.org/usacm/IP/DMCA-release.html


Now the barrel they have the professor over is legitimately due to a
contract he signed with the consortium agreeing to take part in a contest
with a prize of $10,000 for the first team to successfully crack all seven
(or so) encryption standards.  The contract stipulated that anyone in the
running could not discuss their methods after the fact.  What is troubling
is that a French reseacher who also took part in the contest was allowed to
present his research, but because he wasn't a US citizen, and thus exempt
from the DMCA, he got away scott free.  In a country that prides itself on
the freedom of academic expression, this is exceptionally chilling.



_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua