It made me proud to write for the IEEE’s Internet Computing Magazine when I read this arstechnica piece:
IEEE just says NO to the DMCA.

Here’s the New Scientist article that explains more of the details:
Controversial copyright clause abandoned.

The excerpt below is from the New Scientist article:

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which publishes 30 per cent of all computer science journals worldwide, is to stop requiring authors to comply with a controversial US digital copyright law.

The IEEE produced a new set of conditions for publication at the beginning of 2002. These required that authors’ work must not contravene the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Many academics believe the DMCA discourages scientists from publishing valuable research through fear of legal action. The DMCA prohibits “any technology, product, service, device, component or part” that circumvents digital copy protection systems. This includes the software encryption designed to stop people making copies of music or video files, for example. Scientists say the Act means that just producing research on a copy protection system could land them in legal trouble.

An Arizona-based company has settled with the RIAA over files that were arguably being traded in a perfectly legal manner over a private network.

Corporate scaredy-cats! Phoo-ey!

Here’s the arstechnica coverage of it and a Reuters article:
Recording industry collects $1 million fine.

Great comic from Rubin Bolling’s Tom the Dancing Bug.

The DMCA can’t touch scientific research, for now. Thanks to the hard work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Check out Scientist Ends Crusade Against Copyright Law, by David McGuire for NewsBytes.

A Princeton University professor today announced that he would end his legal challenge of a controversial U.S. copyright law that he says was invoked to prevent him from publishing research that exposed holes in recording industry-backed anti-piracy technology.

Princeton professor Edward Felten and his team of scientists said they would not appeal a New Jersey federal court’s decision to dismiss their case against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Felten announced the decision through the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has been representing his scientific team.

Although the RIAA admits that it sent a letter to Felten last year warning him that he could face prosecution under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) should he publish his research, the industry group later retracted the threat, calling the letter a “mistake.”

That retraction, coupled with assurances from the U.S. government that the DMCA does not apply to scientific research, prompted the New Jersey court to dismiss the case last November.

“I think the scientists decided that they would take the RIAA at its word,” EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn said of the Felten team’s decision not to appeal the case. “They were quite anxious to get on with their work.”

Dmitry Sklyarov is off the hook, “until the conclusion of the case against Elcomsoft or for one year, whichever is longer.”

See the Press Release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
US Attorney (N. Dist. CA) Press Release —
On Dropping of Charges Against Dmitry Sklyarov (Dec. 13, 2001).

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that Dmitry Sklyarov entered into an agreement this morning with the United States and admitted his conduct in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Whyte in San Jose Federal Court.

Under the agreement, Mr. Sklyarov agreed to cooperate with the United States in its ongoing prosecution of Mr. Sklyarov’s former employer, Elcomsoft Co., Ltd. Mr. Skylarov will be required to appear at trial and testify truthfully, and he will be deposed in the matter. For its part, the United States agreed to defer prosecution of Mr. Sklyarov until the conclusion of the case against Elcomsoft or for one year, whichever is longer. Mr. Sklyarov will be permitted to return to Russia in the meantime, but will be subject to the Court’s supervision, including regularly reporting by telephone to the Pretrial Services Department. Mr. Sklyarov will be prohibited from violating any laws during the year, including copyright laws. The United States agreed that, if Mr. Sklyarov successfully completes the obligations in the agreement, it will dismiss the charges pending against him at the end of the year or when the case against Elcomsoft is complete.

Part of the deal is that he has to testify in the civil case against his employer, but according to the EFF Press Release, he will most likely also testify on his employer’s behalf.

See the EFF Media Release:

Sklyarov Freed (Dec. 13, 2001):

U.S. Federal Court Judge Ronald Whyte today signed a court agreement permitting Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov to return to his native land after a five-month enforced stay in the U.S. The agreement should eventually clear him of all charges brought against him for distributing software that permits electronic book owners to convert the Adobe e-book format so they can make use of e-books without access restrictions.

As part of the agreement, Sklyarov will testify for the government in the case that remains against Elcomsoft, Sklyarov’s employer. He will likely testify on behalf of Elcomsoft as well.

“Dmitry programmed a format converter which has many legitimate uses, including enabling the blind to hear e-books,” explained EFF Intellectual Property Attorney Robin Gross. “The idea that he faced prison for this is outrageous.”

“There was a tremendous outpouring of grassroots support for Dmitry and against the current U.S. copyright law, and EFF is proud to have been part of such a successful effort,” stated EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. “I’m disappointed, however, that the government has decided to string this along instead of admitting its mistake in bringing these charges against Dmitry in the first place.”

Mindjack has just published a great article by Bryan Alexander about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the complex issues surrounding Intellectual Property and fair use in this day and age: The Digital Millenium Copyright Act: Licensing the Commons.

New Report from the U.S. Copyright Office on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

I’m still reading it myself (all 200+ pages of it). If you don’t have time to read it all…just stay tuned — I’ll be posting an O’Reilly weblog by tomorrow morning on the subject.