[Again, I'm not on vuln-dev, so feel free to forward.] You either misconstrue or mischaracterize the argument outlined in the amicus brief. Our goal was not to prohibit others from linking; it was to say that these are the reasons journalists should be able to link. Other people offered other arguments, and for the record I believe in an expansive definition of the term "journalist." -Declan At 05:13 PM 8/1/2002 -0400, Tim McKenzie wrote: > > * When I was at Wired News, we joined an amicus brief in the 2600 case >that > > said journalists should have the right to link to controversial material > > such as DeCSS.exe: > > http://www.politechbot.com/docs/linking-amicus.012601.html > > > >I may not be a lawyer.. however, I fail to see how a news agency should have >any more leniency than a private individual or security organization. >Especially in the case of a security related website, the end goal is the >same: To notify people en mass about an issue. If I were a lawyer and I had >to defend a case like the 2600 one, I would definitely use this as an >argument. However, there is even a more pressing point. > >Should companies be sued for providing blank tapes, CDR's, DVDR's etc? They >provide the medium for spreading copyrighted material. I fail to see how >this is greatly different than the case of 2600 having a copy of the utility >on their website. Just because I own a blank tape, doesn't mean I'm going to >use it to copy all my rented movies. Likewise, having a copy of a rather >interesting program to analyze for research doesn't make me a pirate of >copyrighted DVDs nor does it mean I encourage the behavior. I believe, as >others have mentioned, that the problem lies in the people who make the >final decisions in cases like this and their lack of experience in the IT >industry. I believe that we are entitled to a jury of our "peers," which >could be described as equals. If I ever got caught up in a similar case, I >for one would have my lawyer ensure that my case is tried by a court that >understands how information technology works. Might be a lost cause, but I >would call it a cause worth fighting for. > >-TJM
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Aug 02 2002 - 00:58:45 PDT