Alan Cox resigns from Usenix ALS committee, cites DMCA

“I hereby tender my resignation to the Usenix ALS committee. With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not
safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. While he was
undoubtedly chosen for political reasons as a Russian is a good example for
the US public the risk extends arbitarily further.”

Resignation from ALS, Skylarov affair...
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:31:02 +0100 (BST)
From: Alan Cox 
To: alschair@usenix.org
Cc: editor@lwn.net,  editors@newsforge.com,  gnu@eff.org


I hereby tender my resignation to the Usenix ALS committee.

With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not
safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. While he was
undoubtedly chosen for political reasons as a Russian is a good example for
the US public the risk extends arbitarily further.

Usenix by its choice of a US location is encouraging other programmers, many
from eastern european states hated by the US government to take the same
risks. That is something I cannot morally be part of. Who will be the next
conference speaker slammed into a US jail for years for committing no crime?
Are usenix prepared to take the chance it will be their speakers ?

Until the DMCA mess is resolved I would urge all non US citizens to boycott
conferences in the USA and all US conference bodies to hold their
conferences elsehere.

I appreciate that this problem is not of Usenix making, but it must be addressed

Alan Cox