Here a bit more of my account of Alexander Katalov on the witness stand last week. More tomorrow!

"Did you believe that it (the AEBPR program) was unlawful?" Burton asked.

"No." Alexander said. "I still believe this program is legal."

"What did you know about the DMCA in 2001?" Burton asked.

"That it was an anti-piracy law." Alexander said. "I was happy that it existed because it would protect my software."

12/10/02 - Alexander Katalov, President, ElcomSoft (Part 2)

This picks up where this post left off.

Alexander explained how he thought Adobe was just trying to shut his website down as some kind of anti-competitive move, since Adobe knew that ElcomSoft's software wasn't truly illegal and didn't have any real legal grounds to sue.

At this point Burton submitted the letter Adobe sent ElcomSoft, and projected it on the screen for the jurors. He used a laser pointer and pointed to a specific section of language in the letter:

ACTION REQUESTED

Adobe is requesting you cease the illegal actions by removing the offending materials. Please respond to us no later than five working days." -- 06/25/01 Letter sent to ElcomSoft from Adobe.

Alexander explained that he understood the above wording to mean that he had a few days to fix the hosting situation and was planning to deal with Adobe after that.

"Why was the software still available after getting this letter from Adobe?" Burton asked.

"Because the letter didn't explain what was going on." Alexander said. "And I had other things to do, like trying to keep my business going."

Alexander explained that the AEBPR program was a small product and not a particularly important product at the time to them, in the scope of all the other business they were doing. Having to deal with a relatively unexplained shutdown took up the majority of his attention at the time.

I wish I had written down more of Alexander's explanation on this point verbatim, but here's the gist of the rest of it.

Alexander woke up one day and found out his ISP was going to shut down his website and ask questions later. His first priority was to get his website back up (by finding another ISP).

He didn't believe that the dispute with Adobe was going to be much of a problem. He was ready to do whatever was necessary to appease them, once he figured out what it was. Whatever it was, he thought it best to let it wait a day while he found another ISP and got his website and business back up and running.

"Did you believe that it (the AEBPR program) was unlawful?" Burton asked.

"No." Alexander said. "I still believe this program is legal."

"What did you know about the DMCA in 2001?" Burton asked.

"That it was an anti-piracy law." Alexander said. "I was happy that it existed because it would protect my software."

"Was your company involved with Cox Broadcasting?" Burton asked.

There was an objection from Frewing in here at some point on relevance, but the Judge overruled it and Burton was allowed to continue.

"One of our employees had sent an email to remove our software from their site." Alexander said.

Burton asked Alexander some questions about a series of emails between an ElcomSoft employee and Cox Broadcasting.

Alexander explained that the email exchange involved a discussion about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

"Since we were a company from Russia, there was no force of the law behind it." Alexander said. "And my letter was rejected by Cox Broadcasting.

On to the next segment.