See also: last week's Letters page.

Letters to the editor

From:	 Peter Schmitteckert <peter@schmitteckert.com>
To:	 ask@eff.org
Subject: DCMA vs. Security patches
Date:	 Tue, 21 Aug 2001 15:53:46 +0200
Cc:	 letters@lwn.net

Dear All,

I'm still dreaming of visiting the US national parks one
day, so I really do not want to break any US laws. 

But two weeks ago I got really puzzled. The notebook of a
friend was infected with the so called CodeRed worm.
My friend then searched the Web and found some patches
to remove the worm. But wait, being able to provide patches
the worm had to be re-engineered. Isn't that a clear violation
of the DCMA ? In addition, Microsoft is providing patches
to circument the effect of CodeRed, isn't that another
violation of DCMA. Thinking more about it, aren't all the
anti-virus software products illegal under DCMA ?
Well I'm lucky, I never had to remove worms or viruses from system
since DCMA was passed by legislation. But if I'll have to,
will I be arrested on my next trip to the states ?

O.k., I don't know the law precisely, so maybe you tell me,
that DCMA doesn't apply to criminal software ? But then there
is no reason to arrest Dmitry, since ADOBE was lying to their
customers -- saying ebooks encryption is strong --, so they are
criminals (suppose I sell you an air plane claiming that it is safe,
and your family dies because it isn't, won't you call me a criminal?
Of course, you would).

Could someone please correct me if I'm wrong?

Thanks in advance,
best regards,

Peter Schmitteckert

________________________________________
Dr. Peter Schmitteckert / IT-Consulting
s-mail:	Fridolinstr. 19, 68753 Waghäusel
Web:	http://www.schmitteckert.com
e-mail:	peter@sch_______ert.com

From:	 Richard Simpson <rsimpson@ewrcsdra.demon.co.uk>
To:	 letters@lwn.net
Subject: The reach of US laws?
Date:	 Thu, 16 Aug 2001 19:09:33 +0100

Sir,

In your 16th Aug letters page Bryan Henderson wrote:

> it's well established, and makes sense, that you can violate
> US laws while standing on a foreign shore.  Placing drugs on a ship bound
> for the US is a classic example.  Putting a program onto a network that
> reaches into the US isn't much of a stretch from that.

The problem with this view is that many Americans seem to feel that it should 
only work one way.  A hypothetical example might help:

Ali is a 2nd generation US citizen and a keen homebrewer (i.e. he brews his 
own beer).  In most US states this is legal provided the results are for home 
consumption.  He runs a homebrewing web site with recipes, tips, 
reviews, homebrewing jokes etc.  Since he speaks English and Arabic his web 
site is in both languages.  One day he decides to visit some relatives who 
live in Saudi Arabia.  On arrival the Saudi police arrest him because his US 
based web site breaks Saudi law.

Now, if this happened would your US readers;

a) Feel that this was perfectly reasonable and that Ali deserved to spend 
years in a Saudi jail, or

b) Feel the same sense of anti-imperialist rage that many Europeans feel 
towards the USA?

Note to Saudi readers:  I am not suggesting for one moment that your 
government would actualy behave in such an unreasonable manner.

Richard Simpson

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard Simpson
Farnborough, Hants, Uk                 Fax: 01252 455596
rsimpson@ewrcsdra.demon.co.uk

From:	 "Bruce Ide" <ide@us.ibm.com>
To:	 letters@lwn.net
Subject: Xerox firmware update
Date:	 Thu, 16 Aug 2001 08:32:16 -0600

You said: "Xerox has a firmware upgrade available for N40 printers which,
it seems, do not handle Code Red scans well. of course, one could question
the wisdom of putting a network printer in a place where it is exposed to
Code Red attacks in the first place."

What, you mean on a network? Code Red has been playing holy hell on our
internal network for a few weeks now. The only place where you're safe from
code red scans is completely off the network. All it takes is for one
employee to get his system infected while surfing the net at home and then
all he has to do is fire up the VPN software that routes his network
connections into the company's network and you've got a problem. A big
problem as it turns out.

Of course what with your network having multi-day outages and dramatically
reduced performance, you'd think printers would be a relatively small
concern, but I guess someone has to worry about them...

--
Bruce Ide / Boulder
T/L 263-4452 / Outside (303) 924-4452

"So you see, with Automatic Volume Recognition your operators can pre-mount
labelled tapes on any online tape drive and they'll be allocated to the
correct jobs. But this doesn't mean you can hire CHIMPANZEES to run your
systems!..."
- IBM Instructor, "Introduction to System/360," Circa 2Q 1966

From:	 "George B. Moody" <george@mit.edu>
To:	 letters@lwn.net
Subject: LWN Daily Updates
Date:	 Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:23:21 -0400

I was amused to read (in "Adding a new dimension to the desktop with 3Dwm")
that "3 dimensional desktops are still quite a few years away from the
common man, but work steadily progresses on at least one project in this
arena: 3Dwm."

I don't mean to brag, but I've had one of these 3D desktops for years.  I
don't have a file manager for it any more (I could never get those clips to
stay in place), but it supports SFS (the sedimentary file system), a
telephone interface, a clipboard, and there's a recycling bin beneath. :-)

Cheers and keep up the good work!
George