More IP Stupidity

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got this from Comp.risks
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 15:47:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Fred Cohen <fc@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Avoiding prosecution of the DMCA (Ferguson,
RISKS-21.60)

The DMCA has also had effects on my forensic analysis products.
Because the
current copyright law makes anything that is put into tangible
form
copyright unless made otherwise by the author (or by law), things
like
criminal records are copyright.

This means that if the criminal tries to protect their material -
for
example by hiding it using steganography, encrypting it, or by
putting
it on a computer with a password to prevent unauthorized access -
then
that work is protected by the DMCA (after all, the password on
Windows
systems is effective protection unless you try to circumvent it).

Because the primary purpose of most of my forensic analysis tools
is to
reveal things that are protected from revelation, and because the
DMCA
makes it illegal to distribute such a device, I have been forced
(based
on the recent arrests and other threats against authors of such
things)
to withdraw my forensic products from the market.

I should note that companies like Access Data who sell products
that are
explicitly designed for undoing encryption, etc.  are almost
certainly in
violation of the DMCA.  While the FBI might not arrest them now
because they
sell to the FBI (and other in law enforcement - as did I), this
does not
mean that the FBI cannot arrest them at any time and charge them
with a
felony.  Indeed, sale to law enforcement is not legal, even
though law
enforcement can, on its own, build and use such tools.

The effects on research and education are even more interesting.
For
example, I am having a discussion with my university now about
canceling
courses on forensics and cryptanalysis because in these courses
we teach
people how to get around protection of this sort and may provide
the
capabilities to do so in so teaching.  The DMCA has, I believe,
made this
illegal - and if you are teaching such a course next semester,
you might
think about the issues as well.  On the research side, I don't
work on
research I cannot publish, so I am canceling the aspects of my
research
that go into these areas.

Fred Cohen  Fred Cohen & Associates.........tel/fax:925-454-0171
fc@xxxxxxx The University of New Haven.....http://www.unhca.com/
http://all.net/ Sandia National Laboratories....tel:925-294-2087

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--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx