[Infowarrior] - DMCA 'Terror' Case Dismissed

[Richard Forno]

DMCA 'Terror' Case Dismissed
http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1551352

A federal magistrate today dismissed with prejudice a disgraceful DMCA
prosecution against three young Texas men who bought a lot of cell phones
while looking Arab.

Adham Othman, 21, his brother Louai Othman, 23, and their cousin Maruan
Muhareb, 18, were cleared of money laundering and conspiracy charges after a
day-long preliminary hearing.

The three were rousted by local law enforcement in Michigan last month after
they were spotted driving from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart buying as many low-cost
pre-paid cell phones as they could get their hands on.

Tuscola County authorities arrested them as suspected terrorists and made a
lot of noise. Then when the case didn't pan out the feds stepped in with
charges that the men conspired to violate the DMCA.

After hearing the evidence today, Michigan U.S. District Court Magistrate
Charles Binder threw out the case.

"I think (law enforcement) dug themselves a hole and they tried to dig
themselves out," defense attorney Nabih Ayad told me. "The government had no
evidence whatsoever that the phones and been modified or tampered with Š And
they didn't show that there was a third party they were conspiring with."

According to the FBI, the men admitted to buying hundreds of phones with the
intention of digitally unlocking them so they could be used with other
carriers, then reselling them at a small markup. In the complaint (.pdf),
the FBI called this a "fraud scheme" in violation of the DMCA's
anti-circumvention provisions, and said it injured consumers, TracFone, and
the brand equity of Nokia, "the eighth most valuable brand in the world!"
(exclamation mark added).

It's hard to imagine anything creepier than the FBI merging homeland
security hysteria with corporate IP extremism.

The case was apparently dismissed for lack of evidence, which ducks the more
interesting question of how unlocking a cell phone constitutes circumvention
of a copy protection scheme. Similar arguments have been floated in civil
court over garage door openers and printer cartridges, and failed miserably.

That's why the feds normally wait for legal controversies like this to be
decided civilly before taking sides with a criminal prosecution. In this
case, their eagerness to fabricate a face-saving prosecution overcame their
good sense, and today they got the black eye they deserve.

(BTW, props to Carlo at Techdirt who called bullsh-t on this case when it
was filed.)