Re: [dvd-discuss] [OT] elcomsoft/sklyarov jury denied text of law?

[daw(at)mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)]

James S. Tyre wrote:
>My guess (and it is only that, I have no special info) is that there is
>more to the story than the blurb in the Wired piece, "The jury asked U.S.
>District Court Judge Ronald Whyte for a full copy of the DMCA to assist in
>their decision-making. But he declined to provide a copy of the document,
>which is over 100 pages long.  Instead, Whyte said he would answer specific
>questions jurors had about portions of the law they must consider in
>determining ElcomSoft's guilt or
>innocence."  http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56853,00.html
[...]
>If I were the judge, I'm not sure that I would give the jury "a full copy
>of the DMCA", if, in fact, that is what the jury really requested.  Using
>an extreme analogy, it would be akin to giving the jury a full copy of the
>Internal Revenue Code when the sole charge against the hypothetical
>defendant is tax fraud by virtue of claiming non-existent charitable
>deductions.

That may be an excuse not to give the whole law to the jurors (though how
much do 100 page of copies really cost?  $5?), but the right response
would then be to give the jury a copy of the appropriate segments of
the law, rather than insisting on only answering specific questions.
If the newspaper article was correct, it gives the impression that the
judge didn't trust the jury to come to a thoughtful decision, which
leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.