password-cracking by journalists...

[Will Rodger]

Arnhold writes:


>Another interesting question is whether the reporters and the Wall Street 
>Journal have violated the DCMA's criminal provisions. The al Qaeda data 
>was copyrighted (assuming Afghanistan signed one of the copyright 
>conventions--they may not have), the encryption is arguably a 
>"technological protection measure" and the breaking was done for financial 
>gain.

That, I think, is an unintended consequence of the law, but I bet there's a 
lawyer somewhere who'd take a crack at it. More important is the origin of 
the info. itself: were it peacetime you'd have a pretty clear case of 
receiving stolen property. Add to that certain trade-secret laws in various 
of the 50 United States, and you could do a long time in the slammer over 
this...

Will Rodger




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