Re: intellectual property claims used for political repression

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick Sinz <ps () ethiqa com>
Date: October 10, 2007 4:15:09 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] intellectual property claims used for political  
repression

Le dimanche 07 octobre 2007 à 11:21 -0400, David Farber a écrit :
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Vadim Antonov <avg () kotovnik com>
> Date: October 7, 2007 4:21:21 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: intellectual property claims used for political repression
>
>
> David --
>
> you may find this interesting (and probaly worthy of publishing in  
> IP):
>
> (the following is the translation of the blog entry by Marina
> Litvinovich,
> an opposition politican and journalist in Russia,
> http://abstract2001.livejournal.com/660606.html):
>
> -------------
> 2007-10-06 21:13:00
>
> News
>
> At this moment there's a search going on in the appartment of the  
> leader
> of Rostov-on-Don branch of OGF (United Citizen Front[*]) Boris Batyi.
> Boris is also a parlamentary candidate from "The Other Russia".
>
> A few months ago his office was searched and he was charged with
> posession
> of unlicensed software.
>
> His telephone: 8-903-402-0059
>
> Upd. on 23:12: The search is over. They have taken the computer's  
> system
> block, the documents of OGF, and a newspaper "The March of  
> Disagreeing".
> They promised to search the office of Batyi's wife.
> --------------
>
> [*] OGF - is an opposition political party supporting presidential
> candidacy of Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion.
>
> I'm wondering if Microsoft is aware of the fact that their  
> intellectual
> property claims are being used by the Russian police (or, more
> likely, by
> FSB) as means of political repression.
Probably they'd rather not see it used that way, since it might help
progressive groups to "shudder" "gasp" finally understand that they
should use and support Free and Open Source Software.

But what it does show is that having law condemning things that
"everybody" is doing is an useful tool to "control" a population.

The DMCA can probably be used on almost anybody in the US, and if not
directly on a "target" at the very least indirectly on the social
network of a "target".
It is a powerful tool against anybody when somebody can levy 220 000$ of
fine (and judicial harassment) against your friends (even if you
disapprove the fact that your friends are using conterfeited software or
downloading conterfeited multimedia content.

> --vadim
>
>
>
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