ElcomSoft Jury Asks for Law Text
By Joanna Glasner for Wired News.
Jurors deliberating in the first trial in which a company stands accused of criminal violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act did not reach a verdict Friday. They did, however, seek further clarifications regarding the law they are being asked to apply.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. The government brought its case against the Russian software firm for creating and selling a program that illegally removes encryption on Adobe eBooks.
Here's the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56853,00.html
ElcomSoft Jury Asks for Law Text
By Joanna Glasner | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
02:00 AM Dec. 14, 2002 PT
Jurors deliberating in the first trial in which a company stands accused of criminal violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act did not reach a verdict Friday. They did, however, seek further clarifications regarding the law they are being asked to apply.
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. The government brought its case against the Russian software firm for creating and selling a program that illegally removes encryption on Adobe eBooks.
Jurors began deliberations Thursday, following six days of trial proceedings in the closely watched federal court case, which is being tried in San Jose, California. Jurors plan to return to court Tuesday morning.
"They appear to be quite serious," said Judy Trummer, spokeswoman for ElcomSoft, of the jury. Throughout the trial, ElcomSoft officials have repeatedly denied government accusations that they sold an allegedly illegal program, the Adobe eBook Processor, in deliberate violation of U.S. law.
Federal prosecutors charge that company executives were well aware they were breaking U.S. law when they began selling the software, which lets users foil copyright protections on e-book documents.
During the course of deliberations, jurors reviewed testimony on Friday from Vladimir Katalov, the company's managing director, who had said in court that he was familiar with the DMCA before the company put the disputed program on the market.
On Tuesday, jurors plan to review portions of the videotaped deposition of Dmitry Sklyarov, the ElcomSoft programmer who created the Adobe eBook Processor program.
