Re: Comment on DMCA, Security, and Vuln Reporting]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Again, I'm not on vuln-dev, so feel free to forward.]

You either misconstrue or mischaracterize the argument outlined in the 
amicus brief.

Our goal was not to prohibit others from linking; it was to say that these 
are the reasons journalists should be able to link. Other people offered 
other arguments, and for the record I believe in an expansive definition of 
the term "journalist."

-Declan


At 05:13 PM 8/1/2002 -0400, Tim McKenzie wrote:

> > * When I was at Wired News, we joined an amicus brief in the 2600 case
> that
> > said journalists should have the right to link to controversial material
> > such as DeCSS.exe:
> > http://www.politechbot.com/docs/linking-amicus.012601.html
> >
>
> I may not be a lawyer.. however, I fail to see how a news agency should have
> any more leniency than a private individual or security organization.
> Especially in the case of a security related website, the end goal is the
> same: To notify people en mass about an issue. If I were a lawyer and I  had
> to defend a case like the 2600 one, I would definitely use this as an
> argument. However, there is even a more pressing point.
>
> Should companies be sued for providing blank tapes, CDR's, DVDR's etc? They
> provide the medium for spreading copyrighted material. I fail to see how
> this is greatly different than the case of 2600 having a copy of the utility
> on their website. Just because I own a blank tape, doesn't mean I'm going to
> use it to copy all my rented movies. Likewise, having a copy of a rather
> interesting program to analyze for research doesn't make me a pirate of
> copyrighted DVDs nor does it mean I encourage the behavior. I believe, as
> others have mentioned, that the problem lies in the people who make the
> final decisions in cases like this and their lack of experience in the IT
> industry. I believe that we are entitled to a jury of our "peers," which
> could be described as equals. If I ever got caught up in a similar case, I
> for one would have my lawyer ensure that my case is tried by a court that
> understands how information technology works. Might be a lost cause, but I
> would call it a cause worth fighting for.
>
> -TJM