[WEB4LIB] Re:taking prisoners in the e-book war

[rich at richardwiggins.com]

That logic would also allow the US to arrest a Chinese citizen who pirated thousands of copies of "Titanic" for distribution in his home country, or to arrest a Columbian who wholesales cocaine for the American market, or to arrest a Russian who distributes a computer virus that dials an international long distance call, leading to huge charges for the victim and kickbacks from a corrupt PTT.  Or that logic would allow a community of nations to bring Slobodan Milosevic to trial in the Hague.

I think the DMCA tilts copyright protection way too far in the direction of media corporations, and criminalizes things that shouldn't be criminalized.  I hope it is revised, or portions overturned by the courts.  But I bet the Russian programmer had a pretty good idea he was violating DMCA.  As to the reach of international law, where you stand depends on where you sit.


/rich



On Mon, 23 July 2001, Tony Barry wrote:

> What is worse is that what he did was legal in the jurisdiction he 
> did it in, Russia. But he gets arrested and charged under a US law 
> when he enters the US.
> 
> The same logic would enable the Taliban in Afghanistan to arrest any 
> US woman entering their country because they don't wear a veil when 
> they are in the US.
> 
> It would allow China to arrest any US citizen entering their country 
> who published material in the US which would be regarded as seditious 
> in China.
> 
> etc. The world is going mad.
> 
> Tony
> -- 
> phone  +61 2 6241 7659
> mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
> http://purl.oclc.org/NET/Tony.Barry

_____________________________________________________

Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing, and Lecturing on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com  http://richardwiggins.com