Re: Dr. Dobbs Cryptography and Security CD-ROM

>Copyright laws will do nothing to prevent the text from being distributed.
>All copyright laws will do is make you able to punish "offenders" after
>the fact.  They have no mystical value to "protect" anything, especially
>digital medium, which is easy to copy.
 
What makes this case especially awkward is the fact that the CDROM can't 
legally be sold outside the US, which means the only way the rest of the world 
can get it is through illegal copies.  Given the immense usefulness of 
something like this, I'd say it's only a matter of time before bootleg copies 
start appearing outside the US, but because of the USG's position we can't pay 
for it even if we want to (DDJ wouldn't look too good if they accepted payment 
for what they knew was illegally exported crypto).  Perhaps a donation of the 
same amount to charity would serve as some equivalent to payment...
 
Peter.

At 8:58 AM -0700 7/1/97, Peter Gutmann wrote:
>>Copyright laws will do nothing to prevent the text from being distributed.
>>All copyright laws will do is make you able to punish "offenders" after
>>the fact.  They have no mystical value to "protect" anything, especially
>>digital medium, which is easy to copy.
>
>What makes this case especially awkward is the fact that the CDROM can't
>legally be sold outside the US, which means the only way the rest of the
>world
>can get it is through illegal copies.  Given the immense usefulness of
>something like this, I'd say it's only a matter of time before bootleg copies
>start appearing outside the US, but because of the USG's position we can't
>pay
>for it even if we want to (DDJ wouldn't look too good if they accepted
>payment
>for what they knew was illegally exported crypto).  Perhaps a donation of the
>same amount to charity would serve as some equivalent to payment...

It might also be a nice gesture if the parts of the CDROM available outside
the US were not posted.


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[Coderpunks removed as its off topic there.]

On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Bill Frantz wrote:

> Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:57:39 -0700

[...]
> At 8:58 AM -0700 7/1/97, Peter Gutmann wrote:

> >What makes this case especially awkward is the fact that the CDROM can't
> >legally be sold outside the US, which means the only way the rest of the
> >world can get it is through illegal copies.  

IIRC if something is not published in australia within some time perod of
it getting published elsewhere interesting things happen to the
copy and publishing rights.

Please excuse my spelling as I suffer from agraphia see the url in my header. 
Never trust a country with more peaple then sheep.  Buy easter bilbies.
Save the ABC Is $0.08 per day too much to pay?  ex-net.scum and prouud     
I'm sorry but I just don't consider 'because its yukky' a convinceing argument