A graduate student researching his Ph.D. thesis into techniques for concealing messages and detecting hackers has said he was forced to move his papers and software offshore - because Michigan's so-called version of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act could put him into jail for four years makes it a felony to possess software that lets you conceal the existence or source of any electronic communication.
"Concealing the existence of communication is my dissertation, and concealing the source of communication takes place in honey nets," University of Michigan graduate student Niels Provos told SecurityFocus.com. "So I decided to be proactive about it and move it to another location, and for now just deny anybody from the states to download any of my software."
Michigan's is one of a series of what Internet watchers call "Super-DMCAs" either being considered or already law in several states. The DMCA makes it a crime to distribute copy-protection software, but the Michigan law - while "appear(ing) to target those who would steal pay-per-view cable television shows or defraud broadband providers," SecurityFocus said - and several other such state laws have come under fire for language broad enough to criminalize research like Provos's and other activities having nothing to do with cable or broadband theft.
The Michigan law bans you from building, developing, producing, delivering. Or advertising software or hardware hiding "the existence or place of origin or destination of any telecommunications service" - and makes it a crime, too, to give written instructions on how to make such programs or hardware.
"Taken literally," SecurityFocus said, "the law is bad news for businesses like Anonymizer.com and Hushmail -- both services cater to privacy-conscious Internet users determined to conceal their place of origin from marketers, or to communicate anonymously."
"This statute," Electronic Frontier Foundation senior attorney Fred von Lohmann told SecurityFocus, "essentially criminalizes the mere possession of technology."
