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EFF Advisory: Russian Programmer to Appear in California CourtAug 22, 2001, 01:27 (9 Talkback[s])Contact: Cindy Cohn, EFF Offline Legal Director David Greene, First Amendment Project Director San Jose, California - Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov will appear in a California federal court this Thursday, August 23, for an arraignment on charges of trafficking in a copyright circumvention device. For programming a software application that appears to be legal in Moscow where he wrote it, Sklyarov -- who is out of custody on $50,000 bail -- faces a potential prison term of five years and a $500,000 fine. The arraignment is scheduled for 9:30 AM Pacific time with US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg presiding, in courtroom 4, 5th floor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Branch, 280 South 1st Street, in San Jose, California. Nonviolent protests are scheduled outside the hearing in San Jose, and later in the week in Moscow (Russia), Cambridge (England), London (England), Minneapolis, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Black Rock City, Nevada. Dmitry Skylarov issued the following statement thanking the activists who have taken up his cause:
Directions and map to San Jose Federal Building: http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/CourtInfo.nsf/6f311f8841e7da2488256405006827f0/f3b46c67b334132e88256682007f6ba9OpenDocument Background on the Sklyarov case: Calendar of protests related to the Sklyarov case: http://www.freesklyarov.org/calendar/ Coincidentally, the same afternoon nearby in San Jose, a California state appellate court will hear oral arguments regarding whether dozens of Internet publishers can be ordered to "stop the presses" pending the outcome of a California trade secrets trial. In January 2000, as part of a trade secrets case brought by the motion picture industry, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Elfving ordered that Andrew Bunner and numerous other defendants halt Internet publication of the source code for DeCSS pending the outcome of a trial. DeCSS is free software that allows people to play DVDs without technological restrictions, such as platform limitations and region codes, that are preferred by movie studios. Bunner, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the First Amendment Project, is appealing this prior restraint on his free speech rights. The case is In Re: DVD Copy Control Assoc., Inc. v. Bunner, case no. H021153. Oral arguments will begin at 1:30 PM before California's Sixth Appellate Court, located at 333 West Santa Clara Street, Suite 1060, San Jose, CA 95113. Directions and map to San Jose Appellate Court Building: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/6thDistrict/location.htm Background on the DVD Copy Control Assoc., Inc. v. Bunner case: http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/ About EFF: About FAP: Related Stories:
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