******** To: declanat_private From: listsat_private (Shakib Otaqui) Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 18:23:39 +0100 (BST) Declan: You may be interested in a letter I wrote to John Naughton, _The [London] Oberver's_ technology writer, about a column in which he berated the prosecution of Sklyarov: I agree with the main thrust of your article regarding Adobe's foolishness and the iniquity of the DMCA. However, my sympathy for Sklyarov is moderated by knowledge of his company's most profitable product lines. [...] "The 26-year-old Sklyarov is the lead programmer at a Russian software company called ElcomSoft, which produces a range of ingenious (and reasonably priced) products, including a program that scans incoming emails to make quasi-intelligent judgments about how they should be categorised and filed. ElcomSoft has also taken an interest in the technology behind 'electronic books', and in particular in the claims that e-book encryption software protects the rights of copyright holders." [...] "Ingenious" is not the word I'd choose to describe these two products: Advanced Direct Remailer (bulk emailer) http://www.mailutilities.com/adr/ Advanced Email Extractor (WWW email harvester) http://www.mailutilities.com/aee/ Here's their own description of the latter, as listed in a shareware announcement newsletter: Program Name - Supported Platforms - Type - Category Advanced Email Extractor PRO - Win95/98/ME/NT4/2000 - Mail tools - Shareware Company/Author: ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. Email: supportat_private Price: $99.95 Download file size: 729 KB Installed Size: 2 MB Program Homepage/Download url: http://www.mailutilities.com/aee/ Description: Advanced Email Extractor (AEE) is designed to extract e-mail addresses from web-pages on the Internet (using HTTP and HTTPS protocols) and from HTML and text files on local disks. AEE supports operation through a proxy-server and works very fast, as it is able of loading several pages simultaneously, and requires very few resources. It is possible to launch AEE in fully automatic mode through the command prompt. AEE has various limiters of scanning range, using which you can extract only the addresses you actually need from web-pages, instead of extracting all the addresses present there. You can not only limit scanning depth and width, you also can cut off unnecessary paths using patterns or just delete them from jobs list during operation. AEE is very flexible and may be used to extract e-mail addresses with owners real names from "simple sites" as well as from web-forums built on scripts and from servers like ZDNet. Elcomsoft peddles spamware - the software behind the junk email that blights use of the internet. They profit from the misery they inflict on people deluged by porn, scam get-rich-quick schemes, questionable and often downright dangerous quack medication, and the like. There are, unfortunately, no laws covering Elcomsoft and their ilk. If there were, I would hope that Sklyarov and his associates would be spending a very long time in jail. Shakib Otaqui ******** Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 16:53:51 +0100 From: David Cantrell <davidat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Why Dmitry Sklyarov belongs in jail, by inside.com's R. Parloff (resend) > Free Dmitry? Spare Me.: Why the FBI Was Right to Arrest the Internet's > Latest Martyr > Civil liberties advocates, programmers and cryptographers are up in arms > about the arrest of a Russian programmer for distributing software that > strips Adobe eBook Reader of its copy-protection. They shouldn't be, > Inside's legal editor argues. > by Roger Parloff This argument only holds water if you are one of those who believes that US laws apply the world over. Sure, they apply in the US, and an argument can be made for them applying to US citizens when they are outside the US, but to suggest that they apply to non-US citizens outside the US is ridiculous. Did Sklyarov commit a crime in the US? No. He wrote his software in Russia. Did Elcomsoft commit a crime in the US? No, as Elcomsoft is in Russia. The only people involved over which the US has jurisdiction are the payment agents, and it is not clear to me that they even knew what the product was - if they're anything like the other comapnies, like Kagi, which act as intermediaries for shareware authors, then they would have no idea what the product was as it would be impractical for them to vet it before offering it to the public. * - I'm quite happy to accept this argument *if* the author also accepts that (eg) British law applies everywhere. We'll start by locking Bush up for being an accomplice to murder, as proven by his participation in the state-sponsored murder of convicted criminals. -- David Cantrell | davidat_private | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave -- Fergus Henderson ******** Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 14:23:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "James B. DiGriz" <jbdigrizat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> cc: politechat_private, rparloffat_private Subject: Re: FC: Why Dmitry Sklyarov belongs in jail, by inside.com's R. Parloff (resend) In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.0.20010807104514.02152200at_private> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0108071355120.896-100000at_private> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-UIDL: 6ccd68bdce9bfda43314249a30d737d0 On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote: > [The inside.com link I sent out last week has since moved behind the > subscription firewall. Roger and inside.com have graciously allowed me to > redistribute his article in full. --Declan] > > --- > > While we can all applaud the Electronic Frontier Society and its allies for > their dogged and vigilant commitment to free speech, every once in awhile it > would be refreshing to see those advocates show a comparable commitment to > candid speech. > Yes, Mr. Parloff makes a persuasive case for federal leglislation to address the growing problem of sophistry. I've become so concerned, in fact, that I've spoken to my representative, and he's introducing, as a rider to a campaign finance reform bill, an amendment which will do exactly that. Meanwhile I'm submitting draft proposals for state legislation for comment to the UCITA and Internet Taxation committees, as well. Thank you so much, Roger, for bringing this to our attention, as otherwise this menace to semantic content might otherwise have gone ignored. With your help, though, perhaps we will be able to make even politicians accountable for their words. jbdigriz -- "My, what splendid clothing, Your Highness!" ******** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 12:28:55 PDT