FC: Colorado state senate delays vote on "mini-DMCA" bill

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 15:39:14 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: Charles Oriez <coriez () oriez org>
Subject: state DMCA - delayed in Colorado


Thanks to the publicity on the politech list over the weekend, a couple of 
state senators heard from their constituents yesterday, and the Colorado 
version of the legislation (HB1303) was laid over for a week.  It had been 
scheduled for final passage in the State Senate today.

Of course now the folks who raised the issue in the first place have to 
finish the job.  It isn't dead, merely delayed.

http://www.leg.state.co.us/2003a/inetcbill.nsf/fsbillcont/A2F0DA113DF2BFC087256CC2006BFB94?Open&target=/2003a/inetcbill.nsf/billsummary/FFD96D398232513587256CBF00543930


charles oriez          coriez () oriez org
39  34' 34.4"N / 105 00' 06.3"W
**

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Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 00:10:40 -0500
From: Peter Olsen <pcolsen () comcast net>
Subject: RE: An analysis of Michigan and Colorado "mini-DMCA" bills
In-reply-to: <5.1.1.6.0.20030330100203.01f1db70 () mail well com>
To: declan () well com
Cc: balunis () buffnet net, Charles Loukus <cloukus () earthlink net>,
   Jon Christopher Olsen <joncolsen () bigfoot com>,
   Eric Carl Olsen <olsenec () valero com>, Seth Olsen 
<solsen () students uiuc edu>,
   Jeff Olsen <jolsen () c-hmfg com>, Randy Olsen <rolsen () c-hmfg com>,
   James Beaupre <beaupre () mit edu>, Lou Marinelli <lmm1442 () yahoo com>,
   Ruben William Duran <duranr () umich edu>
Message-id: <000a01c2f743$df899340$0301a8c0@waldo>

Declan,

Although I'm not (and never have been) a lawyer, I think there is a danger
of these laws becoming "charges of opportunity"

Suppose someone is accused of another crime for which there is not
sufficient evidence to sustain a charge, but law enforcement finds evidence
of a VPN or a router employing network address translation.  Would this
evidence be enough to sustain a further search warrant?

Suppose law enforcement authorities gain access to a computer for another
purpose and find encrypted files.  Could those files be construed as an
attempt to conceal the "origin or destination of a communication service"?

This last example brings up the problem of "If you're not guilty, prove your
innocence.  Just decrypt the files for us."  I understand that this is a
common tactic, even though it seems to fly in the face of my (engineering)
understanding of the Fifth Amendment

Take these comments for what they're worth.  I have an agreement with some
of my lawyer friends:  I don't practice law and they don't practice
engineering.  We all believe the public is safer for both sides of the
understanding.

Peter Olsen, P.E.
pc_olsen () yahoo com

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Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 15:13:04 -0800
To: declan () well com
From: "A.Lizard" <alizard () ecis com>
Subject: Re: FC: An analysis of Michigan and Colorado "mini-DMCA" bills

At 10:02 AM 3/30/03 -0500, you wrote:

Sounds like making sure that this law is rigorously enforced against its 
biggest violators would be the fastest way to get it off the books and to 
make sure it doesn't get reintroduced anywhere else. The options for the 
organizations in violation would be either to close down or move to 
somewhere where they can do business.

The biggest violators would be large corporations and the Michigan state 
government. Are there any IT shops of substantial size that *don't* violate 
this law?

Collecting proof should be easy enough, but some organization to 
systematically tell the rest of us what to look for and where to send it 
would be helpful. Forcing government to act on this might be more difficult.

Perhaps the EFF or one of the other activist organizations might have some 
ideas about that.

A.Lizard

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Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 22:44:55 -0500
From: Dave Emery <die () die com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Cc: cypherpunks () lne com
Subject: Re: FC: An analysis of Michigan and Colorado "mini-DMCA" bills

On Sun, Mar 30, 2003 at 10:02:12AM -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:

        There is another side to the MPAA's super-DMCA state
legislation. In addition to its impact on use of encryption, vpns,
firewalls and so forth it also sets forth new non-federal restrictions
on possession and used of radio receiving equipment.

        While some of your readership may have different perspectives on
this, it appears that several of these mini=DMCA bills might well be
read to ban ownership or use of Big Ugle Dish (BUD) type TVRO satellite
dish setups, or at least those used for private viewing of unscrambled
sports backhauls and newsfeeds as opposed to being subscribed to
scrambled programming services.   This private viewing has been
generally legal under federal law (Satellite Viewers Rights Act), but
very few of the program providers have actually given any kind of
express consent for the public to watch and thus the mini-DMCA
provisions requiring such consent would possibly render even possession
of such dishes illegal in states where such laws are in effect.

        And while the argument is more stretched, it also seems that
someone might argue that police scanners used to monitor public safety
communications (expressly permitted under federal law) might fall under
this rubric too, as the public safety agencies may not have give
express consent.   Under the Mass. bill this would criminalize mere
possession of such radio equipment.

--
        Dave Emery N1PRE,  die () die com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
PGP fingerprint 1024D/8074C7AB 094B E58B 4F74 00C2 D8A6 B987 FB7D F8BA 8074 C7AB




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