FC: ACM's Barbara Simons replies to Politech on DMCA-paper policy

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Barbara has been one of the most steadfast opponents of the DMCA and its 
progeny, and has (until recently) sometimes been a lonely voice. Previous 
Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03402.html --Declan]

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Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 16:40:01 -0700
Subject: Re: FC: IEEE says authors must certify papers to be
        DMCA-violation-free
From: Barbara Simons <simons () acm org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020414102340.0227c890 () mail well com>

Declan,

I hope you will point out to your readers that ACM has taken a very
different approach to the DMCA.  The U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM
(USACM) http://www.acm.org/usacm/ has opposed the anti-circumvention and
anti-dissemination provisions of the DMCA since prior to its passage.  ACM
even took the unusual step of submitting a declaration in support of Prof.
Ed Felten and his colleagues in their legal efforts to oppose the DMCA.  The
declaration, which I think is quite readable, and a link to an FAQ I wrote
explaining why ACM submitted the declaration can be found at
http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/felten_declaration.html.

Efforts to suppress research in vulnerabilities of copy protection systems
do a disservice to potential customers for those systems, threaten academic
freedom, undermine the First Amendment, and endanger the security of our
information infrastructure.

Regards,
Barbara Simons, Past-President, ACM and co-chair USACM




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