[wordup] Russian Programmer Won't Be Charged

[Adam Shand]

about fucking time!  yeesh ... well lucky dimitry just lost 6 months of
life and became a geek "cause celbre".  another thing i thought was cool
is how elcomsoft (his russian employer) handled the whole thing.

note on elcomsoft's ceo standing by dimitry:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/21397.html

commentry is, of course, available on slashdot:

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/13/2157215&mode=flat

adam.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Russian-Programmer.html

Russian Programmer Won't Be Charged
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 13, 2001

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Charges will be dropped against a Russian
computer programmer accused of violating electronic-book copyrights in
exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, ending part of a
case that has generated worldwide protests.

Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution
under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He could have faced up to
five years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Sklyarov will be required to give a deposition in the case and possibly
testify for either side, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Thursday.

Sklyarov and his employer, ElComSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow, were charged with
releasing a program that let readers disable restrictions on Adobe Systems
Inc. (news/quote) electronic-book software. The program is legal in
Russia.

Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a hacking convention in Las Vegas
on July 16. He was freed on bail in August but was required to remain in
Northern California while the case proceeded. He now will be allowed to
return home, his attorney said.

``With this agreement, Dmitry gets everything he could get from an
acquittal, and more. The indictment will be dismissed eventually, he gets
to tell his story truthfully without pressure from the government, and he
gets to go home now, rather than wait in the U.S. while the case is
fought,'' said Sklyarov's attorney, John Keker.

ElComSoft's chief executive, Alex Katalov, said he was pleased that the
company, not Sklyarov, would bear sole responsibility for the charges.

Critics of the case have contended that the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act stifles legitimate computer research and gives book publishers, record
companies and movie studios too tight a grip on online content -- at the
expense of the ``fair use'' and ``first-sale'' premises traditionally
found in U.S. copyright law.

Adobe's eBook Reader gives publishers a format for selling books online.
It is designed to prevent the transfer of materials between users and
devices without publishers' consent.

Sklyarov found flaws in the software's encryption scheme and created ways
for users to make backup copies of e-books or transfer them to other
devices, such as handheld computers. ElComSoft used the techniques in a
program it sold as the Advanced eBook Processor.

After the software became available for download in the United States, for
around $99, Adobe complained to the FBI, which arrested Sklyarov as he was
preparing to fly back to Russia from the computer security convention.

Adobe eventually dropped its support of the case after Internet policy
groups threatened to organize a boycott of the company's products.