[ale] Redhat patch and DMCA

[John Wells]

Gotta admit...that's pretty stupid.  I think the difference is that
they're going after companies that are using revenue-generating
technologies (though this doesn't excuse their idiocy).  Going after
someone for reading Red Hat's notes would be an attack on an individual. 
I know it seems even sillier, but I think there's a distinction there that
makes a difference.

John

SanMillan, Todd said:
> what you mean stupid lawsuits like PanIP's
> http://yro.slashdot.org/articles/02/10/22/015241.shtml?tid=155 ?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Wells [mailto:jb at sourceillustrated.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 2:24 PM
> To: tfreeman at intel.digichem.net
> Cc: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] Redhat patch and DMCA
>
>
> If someone were stupid enough to try and prosecute you, I suspect you'd
> never pay the first dime out of your pocket.  The EFF makes a point of
> fighting ridiculous law suits such as this.
>
> John
>
>> On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, John Wells wrote:
>>
>>> Michael,
>>>
>>> Fight the power.  Read the notes.  If someone ever decided to bring
>>> charges against a person for reading those Red Hat notes, it'd be the
>>> biggest strike against the DMCA yet, and very convincing grounds for
>>> challenging its foundations in a court of law.  Noone will pursue
>>> you, because it would force them to acknowledge how silly/sad the
>>> DMCA is. I think this was exactly Red Hat's point.
>>
>> Ok. And how much could this wind up costing me??? I mean above and
>> beyond  the possiblility of jail time. The current DOJ seems quite
>> willing to  stomp hell all over the Constitution as I understand it,
>> and I'm finding  my funds just a little short to pay for lawyering.
>>
>> Yes, I'm sounding like a cheap, chicken-livered, yellow-belly coward.
>> Partly because I am.
>>
>> OTOH, I rather wish it were otherwise - DMCA and other measures need
>> to be  thrown out.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> <rage against the machine background music> F the Establishment
>>> </rage against the machine background music> ;-p
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>> > I was reading through a Infoworld article and they get
>>> > into a kernel patch that redhat released for some
>>> > security issue.....but you can't read the release notes
>>> > because it may be a breach of the DMCA.  So what does
>>> > one do?  Just patch w/o reading the notes?  Couldn't
>>> > the descriptiveness of the notes be vague enough to
>>> > give those wanting to patch their kernels some
>>> > information.  Here's the site I went to to see the
>>> > notes but I decided I didn't want to go to jail for 5
>>> > years and pay a fine of $500,000.
>>> >
>>> > http://www.thefreeworld.net/non-US/
>>> >
>>> > Michael Smith
>>> > AIM: MikAtlanta
>>> > MSN: MikeAshtonSmith
>>> > email: msmith at mikeandmel.com
>>> >
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>>
>> --
>> =============================================
>> If you think Education is expensive
>> Try Ignorance
>>                    Author Unknown
>> ============================================
>>
>>
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