Why Should Customs Officers Be Determining What Counts As A Copyright Circumvention Device?
from the border-patrol dept
Some of the earliest fears around ACTA concerned some of the earliest draft suggestions, that would increase the power of border patrol/customs officials to look for infringement at the border, including the possibility of searching your laptop or iPod for infringing content. While those provisions mostly seemed to drop out in the negotiations, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t still efforts to get closer to that sort of system. Mart Kuhn, at Public Knowledge, has an interesting post, looking at a bill in the Senate that would give customs the authority to determine if things crossing the border were “circumvention devices” as prohibited by the DMCA. Of course, as the article notes, determining what is and what is not a circumvention device is not particularly easy — as various lawsuits have demonstrated. So it’s quite questionable as to why anyone thinks border patrol agents should be involved in that process at all.
But a bigger issue is the same one at the heart of the debate over whether or not customs officials should have the right to search your laptop at the border. If the point of border patrol/customs is to prevent bad things from getting into the country, it’s pretty ridiculous to try to prevent software at the border, because that software has already totally crossed over the border via the still mostly borderless internet. So this whole thing seems like a charade to look for more ways to take away basic privacy rights in favor of an entertainment industry that is so afraid someone might infringe that it doesn’t realize trying to stop circumvention at the border won’t do anything other than cause serious hassles for legitimate travelers.
Filed Under: border patrol, circumvention, copyright, customs
Comments on “Why Should Customs Officers Be Determining What Counts As A Copyright Circumvention Device?”
Damn! There goes my plan to smuggle 500 copies of VLC into the US via the Canadian border!
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Yes indeed, but smuggling 500 times the same movie in a country would require a large diskspace: 700M*500=341Gb. At least that is what they seem to be thinking if each copy is a stolen good.
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VLC is a “copyright circumvention device”, well at least according to these dinks, and not a movie.
Hmm, I’m coming to the US in July, maybe I should scrub my Linux notebook before taking it across the border. Fresh install.
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Hehe, i thought VLC was a movie :-))
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Basically it’s a media player.
http://www.videolan.org
What's the problem?
I am sure that ANY Customs Officer can spot “A Copyright Circumvention Device” on sight right?
/sarcasm
Re: What's the problem?
Of course they can spot “Copyright Circumvention Devices”, its those powerpoint presentations they get online for an hour every 6 months that make them experts.
Sorry lady you can have your hair dryer back now, and sir I am keeping this spoon …
Because
Because they want more people to visit the united states and be pestered by retarded copyright laws?
OR maybe its a plot by the bankers to gt even with the economy and totally wrap it into a big turd flush?
OH Almost forgot
Because we know they all have higher education working at minimum wage and thus there massive superior IQ’s will spot everything.
How long before they try to stop people bringing in cameras etc, because they have CCD marked on the side of them?
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CCD = Copyright Circumvention device
answer to #5
tomorrow
Dammit, Jim! I’m a customs agent not an IT professional!
Governments just want to control everything that has value to the unequitable benefit of the top one percent.
Crossing over
No matter how paranoid or conspiracy minded your are
what your government is actually doing is worse than you
can imagine.
so I think I've figured it out
if you cause hassles for legitimate customers, they will think the problem is somehow so severe that “this is what it has come to”.. and so it breeds this air of severity
it would be nice if they smartened up, with the justice dept in their pocket I don’t see them dying ANYTIME EVER
it is pretty simple. anything you bring across the border is subject to search, including your butt. it would not be hard to supply field agents with a list of known circumvention software, perhaps a simple detection tool similar to a virus scan.
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“simple detection tool”? One that will run on any hardware and OS? Good luck with this plan.
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>it would not be hard to supply field agents with a list of known circumvention software, perhaps a simple detection tool similar to a virus scan.
aye, so easy even an angry tam could do it.
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Bullshit.
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it would not be hard to supply field agents with a list of known circumvention software, perhaps a simple detection tool similar to a virus scan.
The variations of such circumvention software could approach infinity. Listing an infinite number of discreet items is not “simple”.
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it’s possible to pack binaries to evade signature based detection. compression and encryption, when combined, produce working binaries that are tough to fingerprint:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_obfuscation
you can pack the same binary multiple ways so you get progames that are functionally identical, but have vastly different bits.
packing is how a lot of malware slips past AV scanners and Intrustion Detection Systems:
http://www.finjan.com/MCRCblog.aspx?EntryId=1695
this is different than just keeping stuff in an encrypted volume. for one, it’s easier since the binaries just work with no work on the users’ part. pretty much all commercial software is obfuscated in order to impair reverse engineering, so chances are you are running packed binaries on your computer right now. also, a big encrypted block on a drive might keep your data safe, but it would give border types a reason to detain your or otherwise harass you into decrypting your data for inspection.
of course there is always deniable crypto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniable_encryption
it’s a volume that decrypts one of two ways depending on the key entered, so you have a “safe” version and an “unsafe” version, depending on your audience.
there is a deniable crypto option built into truecrypt called hidden volumes:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume
that said, it would be better all around to just keep your stuff somewhere online and not on disk so you can pull it down once you are over the border.
it’s also probably a good idea to travel with an older laptop/cheap netbook so it’s not a financial hardship if it gets confiscated/destroyed at the border.
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you miss the point. if you are going to go to that level to hide things, it is on par with swallowing condoms full of heroin to transport it. there is always a way to evade detection, to get something over on “the man”. if you are willing to take the time to crypto stuff on your system, then more power to you.
however, i would say that the border guards might think you are trying to transport kiddy porn or al-qaida secrets, so you might want to have a seat over there, as you are going to be in customs for a while.
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you miss the point. if you are going to go to that level to hide things, it is on par with swallowing condoms full of heroin to transport it.
way to only read half the post, no wonder you AC’s are so uninformed.
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i read the whole post. you miss the point. it isnt just a laptop getting confiscated, its you spending time in a federal holding cell while they take the time to decrypt stuff if you hid anything on there. financial hardship over lose the computer is the least of your problems when you are in customs.
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In the event the whole decryption exercise turns out to be a complete waste of time, the time spent in the holding cell will be worth the tsunami of backlash this plan would receive.
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i read the whole post. you miss the point. it isnt just a laptop getting confiscated, its you spending time in a federal holding cell while they take the time to decrypt stuff if you hid anything on there.
and you still miss mine. i said this:
this is different than just keeping stuff in an encrypted volume… a big encrypted block on a drive might keep your data safe, but it would give border types a reason to detain your or otherwise harass you into decrypting your data for inspection.
then i said this:
that said, it would be better all around to just keep your stuff somewhere online and not on disk so you can pull it down once you are over the border.
as in, you could encrypt stuff, but packing binaries so your circumvention tools evade detection in the open, or just leaving your stuff online and pulling it down after you cross the border would be better.
you also miss the larger point: it’s so easy for serious circumvent-ers to evade searches at the border, so why are border patrols bothering with them at all? all these searches will do is harass innocent people. copyright circumvention will continue unimpeded and the only people who suffer will be the ones who get hassled at airports.
this is the same argument against DRM: DRM doesn’t keep media products off of file sharing sites so why bother with it? all it does is inconvenience your paying customers and if you screw it up badly enough, it will actually drive them to piracy.
it’s one thing for media companies to waste their money on something as futile as trying to stop file sharing. it’s their money, they can throw it away if they want to. it’s another for governments to waste tax payer dollars harassing people at the border. it’s not their money, it’s yours.
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Simple detection tool?
I’ll be damned if any border agent is going to run their software on my hardware.
I’d rather wipe the drive and restore from backup when I got to where I was going.
Encryption
Just Ruhhhtarded..If they have the time to crack 256 bit encryption I say have at it. Should provide a significant manning boost to our borders 😛
PS: CCD = your laptop
Re: Encryption
Just Ruhhhtarded..If they have the time to crack 256 bit encryption I say have at it.
You might change your mind sitting in that holding cell while waiting for them to do it.
Crikey,
said the customs officer. This guy has a fully functional C development environment on their portable computer: emacs, gcc, gdb, you name it!
He could program anything with it, including copyright-circumventing software, viruses, you name it.
Let’s lock him up and throw away the key.
I’d just load a dual boot where you have to press a non-prompt key to load the actual OS vs. loading/showing border patrol a “clean” install of say… windows 3.11… lol I bet they’d be like… is this new..?? lol
Yeah that 'll work
From Bruce Schneier’s blog – http://www.schneier.com
“Scene from an Airport
I’ve gotten to the front of the security line and handed the TSA officer my ID and ticket.
TSA Officer: (Looks at my ticket. Looks at my ID. Looks at me. Smiles.)
Me: (Smiles back.)
TSA Officer: (Looks at my ID. Looks at me. Smiles.)
Me: (Tips hat. Smiles back.)
TSA Officer: A beloved name from the blogosphere.
Me: And I always thought that I slipped through these lines anonymously.
TSA Officer: Don’t worry. No one will notice. This isn’t the sort of job that rewards competence, you know.
Me: Have a good day.”
"cause serious hassles for legitimate travelers"
Those who are profiting DON’T CARE whether you’re hassled or stripped of all rights and sent to Gitmo, innocent or not.
The sole way to end this erosion of your natural rights in favor of corporate profit-making granted rights is to recall that The Rich used to be rightly perceived as the enemy of civil society, and to limit the power of these “economic royalists”. (Until the tendencies and excesses of The Rich became too evident to ignore, I never had any use for FDR…)
fingers are used in circumvention ( untying a knot )
wow so they will be chopping off fingers and hands now?
Re: fingers are used in circumvention ( untying a knot )
wow so they will be chopping off fingers and hands now?
That depends. Have you been posting comments critical of copyright on Techdirt?
Damn … no more sharpies.
Should I remove my shift keys prior to going thru customs ?
A souvinir to take home?
Copyright is a bargain where a state gives a monopoly in exchange for certain rights to the public to use the work, including copying for private study, research, and freedom to copy after the term. Don’t take my word for it, James Madison said this was the rationale for Copyright when he put it in the U.S. Constitution, and the Canadian Supreme Court said this is its foundation in its latest copyright decision.
A digital lock breaches that agreement and forfeits the copyright. So do many license agreements, e.g., that limit reverse engineering.
A digital lock prevents both legal and illegal copying. A device for circumventing it is not therefore a copyright circumvention device. It is the lock which is the copyright circumvention device.
Any digital computer can have a program to pick a digital lock.
Who else gets the customs service to police their private property rights. How do taxpayers hold still for that?
When homeland security loads software onto your computer/device to look for lock picking software, what else does it look for? What software do they leave on the device?
Remember, the present US law is the customs can seize any digital device coming into the US for investigation without probable cause.
Good luck.
Re: A souvinir to take home?
A digital lock prevents both legal and illegal copying. A device for circumventing it is not therefore a copyright circumvention device. It is the lock which is the copyright circumvention device.
it doesn’t matter. the DMCA makes all circumvention illegal. how do you win a game that cannot be won? by changing the rules.
When homeland security loads software onto your computer/device to look for lock picking software, what else does it look for? What software do they leave on the device?
Remember, the present US law is the customs can seize any digital device coming into the US for investigation without probable cause.
as always, the relentless march of technological progress is the solution.
falling prices on mobile phones have made them disposable. in time the same will be true of media players and laptops, indeed, for a no-frills music player it is already true. when laptops or netbooks reach a similar price point, the people who are serious about privacy will pick one up for a trip into/out of the US and dispose of it upon return.
Guess I’ll be leaving my photocopier at home now. =(
This could be even worse then you might think depending on how things are worded. The US Border Patrol can make stops and searches anywhere within 100 miles of the national border. This covers something like 70%+ of the US population. So in theory they could stop your car in the middle of New York city and search for this kind of stuff.
“… because that software has already totally crossed over the border via the still mostly borderless internet. …” Clearly you’re not familiar with Canadian Internet experience. Try to view a link on Comedy Central found in a US site or a link to Hulu, for example. Restricted to US audiences unless you have an US proxy account.
Guess I better delete Handbrake from my notebook before crossing back.
Seriously.
If they have even a margin of a clue, this one would be THE product to nail you on.
Well, my company will love this
as I do a LOT of international traveling and take a fair amount of equipment that could be used (though isn’t) for circumvention. This will help the travel industry…
pencil and paper