________________________________________________________________________________ ================================================================================ Subject: FC: USA Today on Mattel's subpoenas, by Janet Kornblum From: Declan McCullagh Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 09:54:24 -0600 ================================================================================ http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/jk032000.htm March 20, 2000 E-Briefing Judge helps Mattel zap effort to undermine filter By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY A federal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order Friday that calls for the removal from the Net of a program that allows users of the Web filtering software Cyber Patrol to see which sites the software blocks. The program also lets kids and others circumvent the filtering, says Mattel, parent company of Cyber Patrol. The order sides with Cyber Patrol against two programmers and, says Mattel's attorney, extends to anyone who posted the program. It's tough to make something disappear once it hits the Net; several sites picked up the program and reposted it. Then again, a court order can be persuasive. For more information: On Saturday, Declan McCullagh, a journalist for Wired who runs a popular e-mail list and accompanying Web site on which this issue was discussed and links to sites were published, received a subpoena via e-mail from Mattel's attorney. It ordered him to reveal "each and every person who produced, received, viewed, downloaded or accessed" the program from his site. "If they do try to force me to turn over my readership list, I'll fight it as hard as I can," he says. "Can you imagine Mattel trying to subpoena Time magazine's subscriber list? A judge would laugh. Internet publishers shouldn't have fewer rights." ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================ Subject: FC: CyberPatrol brawl gets ugly and international, from CNN From: Declan McCullagh Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 09:54:24 -0600 ================================================================================ I just got back from Dallas -- only to learn from a reporter who phoned me that Mattel hasn't given up. Their lawyer is sending me a physical subpoena via registered mail (and here I was hoping to get served in person!). Thanks, everyone, for the offers of legal and moral support. I'll keep y'all informed about what happens now. -Declan http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/21/cyberpatrol.decoder/ Cyber Patrol decoding brawl gets ugly and international March 21, 2000 By Richard Stenger CNN Interactive Writer FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A legal dispute between a U.S. toymaker that produces a popular Internet pornography filter and two programmers that decoded the software could heat up into a messy international brawl. A subsidiary of Mattel Inc. won a court order Friday requiring Eddy Jansson of Sweden and Matthew Skala of Canada to stop distributing a method to bypass its Cyber Patrol filtering software. Now the company is going after mirror sites that posted the "cphack" decoding program, and anyone who downloaded it. [...] Targeting mirror sites, downloaders Microsystems' lawyers are also now looking for anyone who downloaded cphack, according to Declan McCullagh, a journalist and computer expert who received an electronic subpoena from a lawyer representing Cyber Patrol. "Mattel attorneys are bulk-mailing anyone who even linked to the cphack code and telling them the order applies to them too. They're also sending out subpoenas, frantically trying to find out who downloaded copies," he said in an email on Sunday. McCullagh said he never mirrored the cphack utility, but did post the addresses of mirror sites to Politechbot, his Web site about politics and technology that includes a moderated mailing list. "Naturally I have no intention of revealing the identities of politech readers to Mattel or anyone else. Nor is a subpoena sent via email usually viewed as proper service, at least where I come from," he wrote. Sydney Rubin, a Cyber Patrol spokesperson, downplayed Mccullagh's charge. "The court gave us the ability to [locate those who downloaded the program] but I don't think we will. We will do only what is absolutely necessary to take this [utility] down," she said. But Schwartz, in an email to McCullagh, writes: "I have included a subpoena to you that requires you to disclose the log of persons who downloaded either 'CP4break.zip' and/or "cphack.exe'." [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================ Subject: FC: Reply to Mattel temporary restraining order and subpoena From: Declan McCullagh Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 16:02:07 -0500 ================================================================================ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 March 24, 2000 Dear Mr. Schwartz, On the evening of Saturday, March 18, 2000, you or someone using your account sent me a copy of a temporary restraining order and subpoena via email with the Subject line "Service of Temporary Restraining Order." The attached subpoena ordered me to turn over documents and records by the end of the business day today, March 24. I have been in Dallas, Texas on a business trip and have not had an opportunity to retain legal counsel to determine whether the subpoena is legally served or otherwise legally objectionable. As a journalist, I intend to fight this subpoena, which seems unnecessarily broad, not to mention ill-advised. Thus I am requesting the courtesy of an extension until next Wednesday, March 29. - -Declan -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.0.2i iQA/AwUBONvXoT4oIjNdPtYXEQLoigCglC/PlVNvJhQIxlMjoIdlYu5TV50An3d9 6fOwpwJ5BZJunM1s19O0RaCA =EjgA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- At 17:34 3/18/2000 -0500, you wrote in "Service of Temporary Restraining Order": >To Whom It May Concern > >Re: Microsystems Software Inc. et al. v. Scandinavia Online AB et >al., Case No. 00-cv10488-EFH (D. Mass.) > >Greetings: > > This firm represents Microsystems Software, Inc. and Mattel, Inc. > in the above-referenced action filed in the United States District Court > for the District of Massachusetts. > > On March 17, 2000, United States District Judge Edward Harrington > entered a temporary restraining order in the above-referenced matter > prohibiting any further publication of "CP4break.zip" or "cphack.exe" or > any derivative thereof, which likely violate United States copyright laws > (the "Order"). A copy of that Order is attached here as Order.uni and in > its proposed form as order.doc. You may open the *.uni document with a > *.tif file reader. > > > > It has come to our attention that your Web hosting service or Web > site is publishing one or both of these prohibited files. This letter > and the enclosed Word documents and *uni files will place you on notice > of Judge Harrington's Order. > > The Order also permits Microsystems to take discovery on an > expedited basis. Accordingly, I have included a subpoena to you that > requires you to disclose the log of persons who downloaded either > "CP4break.zip" and/or "cphack.exe". A copy of the subpoena is attached > here as *.uni and in Word format as subpoena.doc. > > > > > In addition, attached to this E-mail transmittal are the > following documents in Microsoft Word and *.uni format: > >Verified Complaint > >Plaintiffs' Ex Parte Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Expedited >Discovery; > >Memorandum in Support of Ex Parte Motion for Temporary Restraining Order >and Expedited Discovery. > > We recommend that you retain counsel in Massachusetts and we ask > that you or your counsel contact us as soon as possible to arrange more > formal service of these documents on you. > > Sincerely, > > > > Irwin B. Schwartz > >Enclosures -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================ Subject: FC: Cyberpatrol hearing report from Boston From: McCullagh Mobile Account Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 14:13:14 -0800 ================================================================================ I'm in Boston on my Palm, so I'll keep this short. Mattel has acquired rights to cphack.exe and has threatened contempt of court charges for sites mirroring it. Judge Harrington will decide by Wednesday whether to turn the restraining order into an injunction. Details at http://wired.com -Declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================ Subject: FC: Cyberpatrol suit takes GNU twist -- Mattel's victory not one From: Declan McCullagh Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 10:00:49 -0500 ================================================================================ I've put up the first few lines of the cphack utility which explicitly releases it under the GPL at: http://www.politechbot.com/cyberpatrol/cphack-gpl.txt ********** http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35226,00.html Mattel Suit Takes GNU Twist by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 3:00 a.m. Mar. 28, 2000 PST BOSTON -- Mattel's claim of victory Monday in a lawsuit over its Cyberpatrol filtering software may be premature. The toy giant said during a court hearing here that it had acquired intellectual property rights to a program that reveals Cyberpatrol's secret list of off-limits websites and settled the case. Mattel said it planned to use its new copyright in court to ban Internet copying of the "cphack" utility. But cphack's authors released it under the GNU General Public License, which appears to permit unlimited distribution of the original cphack program, even if Mattel now owns the copyright. "Once you do that you can't revoke it," said Bennett Haselton of Peacefire, a group opposed to filtering software that temporarily put up its own cphack mirror site. The Free Software Foundation's GPL agreement says that "the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the program." Translation: A copyright holder can't change his mind. "GPL is software that cannot be revoked," said Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University and FSF general counsel. "Anyone downstream who possesses a copy of the software may redistribute it. "It's a very amusing case," Moglen said. "If people are going to respond to free software they don't like by trying to wipe it out, they're in for some real trouble." A spokeswoman for Mattel reached late Monday said she didn't know what the effect of the GPL would be. But she said cphack authors Eddy Jansson and Matthew Skala had signed a contract with Mattel and if there was any deception, "they'd be in big trouble." [...] ********* http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35216,00.html Mattel Stays on the Offensive by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 2:45 p.m. Mar. 27, 2000 PST BOSTON -- Upping the stakes in a battle over a utility that reveals Cyberpatrol's list of off-limits websites, Mattel threatened mirror sites with contempt charges during a court hearing Monday afternoon. Mattel, which sells Cyberpatrol, said the toy giant had acquired the copyright to "cphack" from the two cryptoanalysts who published it on their website earlier this month in a settlement agreement signed on March 24. Citing a March 16 Slashdot thread that said "it's time to mirror!", Mattel attorney Irwin Schwartz advised against anyone thinking of distributing cphack from now on. [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================================ Subject: FC: Judge invites Mattel to shut down mirror sites From: Declan McCullagh Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 17:19:06 -0500 ================================================================================ Judge Harrington's order is at: http://www.politechbot.com/cyberpatrol/final-injunction.html ********* http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35244,00.html Mattel Can Go After Mirrors by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 12:55 p.m. Mar. 28, 2000 PST A federal judge in Boston has invited Mattel to start contempt of court proceedings to shut down mirror sites in a suit over its Cyberpatrol filtering software. U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington's order released Tuesday afternoon says anyone who is acting in "concert" with the authors of a program that reveals Cyberpatrol's secret blacklist must take down their Web sites or face the consequences. During a hearing on Monday, a Mattel attorney said that would apply to anyone who mirrors the "cphack" utility. "They should be afraid of being hauled into court on contempt proceedings," Irwin Schwartz said. In his three-page order, Harrington wrote that it was a good thing that parents could block the Web sites of "the purveyors of pornography and the merchants of death and violence." In addition to descrambling Cyberpatrol's blacklist, cphack reveals the password that parents have set -- and users can then bypass the ban on verboten Web sites and newsgroups. [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 2000 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org