DMCA

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

Dmitri Sklyarov, the Russian programmer was arrested based on the DMCA law, 
which covers various kinds of intellectal property, including phonograms.  
Notice it says ISPs are expected to remove materials from user websites that 
appear to constitute copyright infringement.

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm


The Russian company is Elcommsoft, and it seems they haven't released a 
fully functional version of their software yet.  Maybe the arrest is to 
discourage them from releasing the full version.  Apparently it will convert 
Ebooks into standard PDF format which can be read by Acrobat freeware, 
rather than by their Ebook Reader.  There are some signs of flaming on the 
Adobe forums.

Here's another interesting law regarding reproduction and distribution of 
copyrighted materials:

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/hr2265.html


As I understand copyrights, the copyright resides with the author of any 
recording made, though legally the permission of the author of the recorded 
works is required for distribution.  This makes audience recordings (with 
TED's blessing) legal to distribute by the author, but copying and 
distributing anything that's not an audience-made recording is a criminal 
offense.


keets

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