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Comment by whatnotests | Hacker News Reader

That's how the DMCA works. Remember the guy who gave a talk about Adobe's PDF creator which purported to produce "secure" documents (required a password) but the feature was easily bypassed.

Adobe had him arrested the day after he gave his talk.

Link to a Wired article here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2001/07/russian-a...

EDIT: I have a terrible memory-- thanks to the folks who replied to my comment with corrections.

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> Adobe had him arrested on the stage as he gave his talk.

I was there!

The FBI arrested him in a hallway, 1 day after his talk. Dmitry at first thought it was a joke put on by a Defcon prankster.

During his talk, the panel moderator asked Dmitry to pause for a minute... and said "Would you mind saying 'Can you tell me where are the nuclear vessels in Alameda'?" Dmitry was confused by this request and said, in his Russian accent, "I do not know where the nuclear wessels are in Alameda?" The mostly American Trek-familiar audience had a good laugh, and Dmitry continued with his talk.

I'm confused by his request as well, I can't understand why he asked it. Any context?

A scene in Star Trek IV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvkYTJYcYzY

I think it is a Star Trek reference.

Sounds kinda mean spirited to mock of the accent of someone who is presenting in their second language.

A lot of the amateur security scene is pretty mean-spirited, unfortunately for anyone trying to get into it.

I believe it isn't about mocking but making the point about US / Russia and nuclear weapons

It's a Star Trek quote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSJFrhb-HM

Yep, Hungarian story. And indeed the law in this case is not that bad at all. It doesn't penalize what the guy did. The sad part is of course the corporate & governmental reaction, the frightening part is that the police was so eager to jump in and overreact.

This story takes place in Hungary.

But inspired by the DMCA, the EU has also adopted anti-circumvention legislation. Though I'm dubious either would apply here, as this would be very difficult to spin as a copyright issue.

Has it? Can you link to it?

General info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention#European_Un...

More about the directive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Directive

Actual text of the directive: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:320... (see Chapter III, containing things like "Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of any effective technological measures" and then going on to define "effective" to mean "not necessarily effective")

Some parts have been amended (for example, copyright duration has been expanded from 50 to 70 years after death), but I believe the anti-circumvention parts to be unchanged. I'm not sure how to find up-to-date codified versions of EU laws, though.

Thanks!

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