ElcomSoft On Trial: Dmitry's Cross-Examination By The Prosecution Here's my next round of notes from the ElcomSoft trial. I haven't heard anything yet about a decision from the Jury. You'll know as soon as I do!

"If I was an unscrupulous student, would I be able to use the AEBPR program to make copies (of the course materials) and give them to the other members of the class?" "Yes." Dmitry replied. "But it would be illegal to distribute them. You would be distributing them yourself. The program doesn't do it." Dmitry volunteered that an unscrupulous student could also open up the Ebook and take screen grabs of its pages and distribute them, or even print the pages out and make copies of them, and distribute those, illegally, to everyone in the class, if one were so inclined. Frewing made a point of having Dmitry clarify that it would probably be cheaper and take less time for the unscrupulous student to spend the $99 on the AEBPR program and email them to do students from his home than to perform any of the other options Dmitry had mentioned. "Yes." Dmitry conceded. "It might be cheaper."

Dmitry Sklyarov's Cross Examination at the ElcomSoft Trial December 9, 2002 - Continued from this earlier post. My editorial comments are in italics. We're still in in the court room with Dmitry, who is being cross-examined by the prosecution. At this point a big screen had been extended out in front of the left side of the Audience box, covering much of the view, so everyone was crowded in on the right side of the courtroom. I decided to take the one spot available on the left next to Jury so I would have a better view of the exhibits and witnesses and the reactions on the Judge's face, if any. (Note: there weren't any. This guy's got a poker face if there ever was one.) "You're a Professor." Frewing stated/asked "Oh no." Dmitry said. "I am not a Professor! I am only an Assistant Professor." "Okay. An Assistant Professor." Frewing said. The room chuckled a bit. "Let's say, hypothetically, I'm a student." Frewing said. He went on to describe a typical scenario where an required Ebook was required (at $?/per Ebook) for a class of 99 students. "If I was an unscrupulous student, would I be able to use the AEBPR program to make copies (of the course materials) and give them to the other members of the class?" "Yes." Dmitry replied. "But it would be illegal to distribute them. You would be distributing them yourself. The program doesn't do it." Dmitry volunteered that an unscrupulous student could also open up the Ebook and take screen grabs of its pages and distribute them, or even print the pages out and make copies of them, and distribute those, illegally, to everyone in the class, if one were so inclined. Frewing made a point of having Dmitry clarify that it would probably be cheaper and take less time for the unscrupulous student to spend the $99 on the AEBPR program and email them to do students from his home than to perform any of the other options Dmitry had mentioned. "Yes." Dmitry conceded. "It might be cheaper." You could telling Frewing was getting really excited about his next line of questioning. "What's the last message that a user of the AEBPR program sees after using the program to decrypt an ebook?" Frewing asked. Dmitry strained to think of it. "Is it 'Protection Successfully Removed?'" Frewing asked. "It's possible." Dmitry said. Still not sure. Then Frewing projected a slide of the final message in question. "Does that say 'Protection Successfully Removed'?" he asked. "Yes." Dmitry re Posted by Lisa at December 13, 2002 12:35 PM