password-cracking by journalists...

[Karsten M. Self]

on Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 11:23:49AM -0500, Arnold G. Reinhold (reinhold at world.std.com) wrote:
> At 9:15 AM -0500 1/16/02, Steve Bellovin wrote:

> 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.
> 
> "17 USC 1204 (a) In General. - Any person who violates section 1201 
> or 1202 willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private 
> financial gain -(1) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or 
> imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first 
> offense..."

Note that my reading the language of 1201 doesn't requre that the work
being accessed be copyrighted (and in the case of Afghanistan, there is
a real question of copyright status), circumvention itself is
sufficient, regardless of status of the specific work accessed:

    17 USC 1201(a)(1)(A):
    No person shall circumvent a technological measure that
    effectively controls access to a work protected under
    this title.

...if the measure controls access to _a_ work protected under 17 USC,
than _any_ circumvention is illegal, whether or not that circumvention
affects a protected work?

I don't see the statuatory exceptions as covering the case of the WSJ.

Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?              Home of the brave
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