IP: "child porn piece from my 1997 book proposal comes true!!!"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 16:32:51 -0400
> From: jordan pollack <pollack () cs brandeis edu>
> To: declan () well com, farber () cis upenn edu
>
>
> When is it illegal to own information?
>
>   Information is difficult to police. employees of a company
> are enjoined from taking company information out. Tobacco
> companies, for example, don't want any internal memos of
> research or legal departments circulating, tho some got to
> the berkeley site.
> The government doesnt want information on bomb-making, poisons,
> illegal activities of the CIA, etc. circulating, partly for
> the protection of society, partly to cover its own butt.
>
> If you have a dubbed cassette tape or copyrighted video tape,
> (not from broadcast!) or software on a hard disk, without evidence of
> license,
> you could be arrested someday. Most small crimes of property are not
> enforced
> since police would rather focus limited resources on violent crime.
> Software piracy today is like sodomy, tax evasion, or marijuana smoking
> - If
> the powers want to put you away, they have a crime to use.
>
> There are some kinds of information which is forbidden even
> to own. The most obvious is "kiddie porn,", images of children
> portrayed as sexual objects. This is somewhat incredible.
> You could make a law which protects children by electrocuting
> the photographers, the procurers of models, those who sell
> and even those
> who BUY the information. But under the social protection notion, it is
> not these exploited
> models or others who might be exploited, but all children who
> are at risk from any portrayals of them as sex partners.
>
> Therefore, stories you write yourself
> about child sex are illegal to own. Cartoons
> about child sex are illegal to own. The following sentence is
> obviously legal:
>
> After some instruction, the 20 year old Natasha was an expert in
> glass blowing. She could blow quite large test tubes and keep it up
> for hours. And although her globes were small,
> they had the cutest little nubs on their end.
>
> But if a nasty editor substituted 14 for 20,
> you could be arrested for owning this book. Unless it were art.
>
> Virtual Valerie versus Virtual Valerie Junior.
>
> Similarly, if one made a computer animation of consensual sex with
> computer
> graphics, moving geometric configurations, it would be fine,
> but if you remade the animation using the configurations of
> the bodies of children, that software would be illegal.
>
> Another potentially illegal ownership of information is algorithms
> for strong encryption, which is classified as a munition. Many americans
> who work in the field of cryptography have put up with heavy
> restrictions
> on their publications. The US government went around looking for copies
> of
> Phil Zimmerman's PGP code available on many ftp servers, under the
> export
> of munitions act.
>
> A final information which might be illegal to own is information about
> building weapons, depictions of national flag-burning,
> or even under some future political systems, information on abortion.
>
> The No electronic theft (NET) law passed recently criminilizes the
> receipt
> of pirated IP. So if you own information which you received or retrieved
> which saved you a bunch of money on licensing fees, you could be
> arrested or fined.
>
>
>
> --
> Professor Jordan B. Pollack   Dynamic & Evolution Machine Org
> Computer Science Department   FaxPhone/Lab: 781-736-2713/3366
> MS018,  Brandeis University   http://www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu
> Waltham Massachusetts 02454   e-mail: pollack () cs brandeis edu



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