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The Copyright Cops Go Too Far (Business 2.0 Article)
Call me a communist, or call me a left-wing, paranoid, conspiracy theorist. Either way, it won't change my opinion that we ("we" defined as the U.S. government and citizens thereof) went too far last week by arresting Russian programmer Dmitry Skylarov on charges of criminal copyright violations. In case you didn't follow the news reports, Skylarov, who works for a Russian software company, was arrested in Las Vegas, where he was scheduled to speak at a conference. (And OK, it was the Defkon-9 hacker convention, but that's beside the point. Really.) ... It's also difficult to understand how the prosecution of Skylarov will help Adobe -- not to mention the rest of us -- which is supposed to be the justification for criminal laws. So far, the arrest has done little more than galvanize anti-DMCA activists and create a barrage of negative publicity for Adobe, which I'm willing to bet has not translated into an increase in the already pathetic sales of eBooks. As for the underlying problem of copyright protection on the Internet, it's still an open issue, but bringing out the police is not the solution to our problems. If nothing else, the arrest underscores the fact that the DMCA is a law that needs rethinking, and soon.

posted by Jerry permanent link