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IP: Two on Avoiding prosecution of the DMCA (Ferguson, RISKS-21.60): [risks] Risks Digest 21.62
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 21:06:49 +1000
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 20:56:30 -0400 From: David Petrou <dpetrou () cs cmu edu> Subject: Re: Avoiding prosecution of the DMCA (Ferguson, RISKS-21.60) Just staying out of the U.S. won't necessarily do the trick. The DoJ can obtain an arrest warrant based upon a criminal violation of the DMCA and seek extradition from a number of countries. If US law is violated and the country where the person is has an extradition agreement with the United States, the foreign government will cooperate in arresting the person and having that person delivered to the United States for prosecution. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 15:47:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cohen <fc () all net> Subject: Re: Avoiding prosecution of the DMCA (Ferguson, RISKS-21.60) The DMCA has also had effects on my forensic analysis products. Because the current copyright law makes anything that is put into tangible form copyright unless made otherwise by the author (or by law), things like criminal records are copyright. This means that if the criminal tries to protect their material - for example by hiding it using steganography, encrypting it, or by putting it on a computer with a password to prevent unauthorized access - then that work is protected by the DMCA (after all, the password on Windows systems is effective protection unless you try to circumvent it). Because the primary purpose of most of my forensic analysis tools is to reveal things that are protected from revelation, and because the DMCA makes it illegal to distribute such a device, I have been forced (based on the recent arrests and other threats against authors of such things) to withdraw my forensic products from the market. I should note that companies like Access Data who sell products that are explicitly designed for undoing encryption, etc. are almost certainly in violation of the DMCA. While the FBI might not arrest them now because they sell to the FBI (and other in law enforcement - as did I), this does not mean that the FBI cannot arrest them at any time and charge them with a felony. Indeed, sale to law enforcement is not legal, even though law enforcement can, on its own, build and use such tools. The effects on research and education are even more interesting. For example, I am having a discussion with my university now about canceling courses on forensics and cryptanalysis because in these courses we teach people how to get around protection of this sort and may provide the capabilities to do so in so teaching. The DMCA has, I believe, made this illegal - and if you are teaching such a course next semester, you might think about the issues as well. On the research side, I don't work on research I cannot publish, so I am canceling the aspects of my research that go into these areas. Fred Cohen Fred Cohen & Associates.........tel/fax:925-454-0171 fc () all net The University of New Haven.....http://www.unhca.com/ http://all.net/ Sandia National Laboratories....tel:925-294-2087
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- IP: Two on Avoiding prosecution of the DMCA (Ferguson, RISKS-21.60): [risks] Risks Digest 21.62 David Farber (Aug 26)