DMCA madness

I am living in a fucked up country. Isn't it ironic that China recently freed a U.S.-based university teacher convicted and sentenced for spying, while here in the U.S., a foreign citizen is being held hostage not for anything as serious as spying, but for challenging the authority of a corporation.

In case you don't know what this is all about, I'm referring to Dmitry Sklyarov, who was arrested July 17 in Las Vegas, at the order of Adobe Systems, and was charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures, in violation of the DMCA. Here's a site that explains it all:

• freesklyarov.org

Here are some must-read articles on the First Amendment, copyrights, the DMCA, and copy protection:

• First Amendment - Void Where Prohibited
• Copyrights and Copywrongs: Why Thomas Jefferson Would Love Napster
• Putting a Lock on e-Books: A New Cold War Looms Over Your Right to Read
• What's Wrong with Copy Protection

Another thing to think about... how would you feel if an American programmer got arrested in Russia for a law that didn't even exist here? It's hard to believe this is all happening here in the U.S., land of the free. The DMCA, which was created to make the digital world safe for software companies and movie studios, is now pushing the agenda of Big Business, at the expense of our personal freedoms.

Add to this that we've got an idiot in the White House who wasn't elected by the people, and the recent "screw the world" Kyoto pact snub by the U.S. -- the only world power (and also the world's biggest polluter) to not accept the accord. I am deeply embarrassed that I am a U.S. citizen. We seriously need to reform our laws.

Hey Canada, got any vacancies up there, eh?