Here's more of my account of Alexander Katalov's testimony from last week's ElcomSoft trial.

I'll be posting the rest of Alexander's questioning within the hour, and then my account of the testimony from a RegNow! employee.

Then off to the final arguments! They should be up tomomrrow.

Back in a flash!

Alexander explained how, on June 28, 2001, he received an email from RegNow! saying that they had been contacted by Adobe. The next day, Alexander sent an email to a RegNow! employee asking him to stop accepting money for the program.

Burton projected an email on the screen in which RegNow! responds to his request.

Burton read the text of the email out loud: "I am really sorry for any inconvenience. Please disable the AEBPR temporarily until we remove the feature Adobe doesn't like or find another solution."

"Why did you stop selling the product?" Burton asked. "Why not wait until more complete information could be provided?"

"To protect RegNow!." Alexander replied. "I decided that it would be better to pull the software first and then figure out the problem."

10/10/02 Alexander Katalov - President, ElcomSoft (Part 3)

Defense Attorney Joseph Burton is questioning defense witness Alexander Katalov.

I am going to repeat the last few lines of the previous post to set the scene.

"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 the 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 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

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

Burton submitted as evidence an email sent to Alexander from another ElcomSoft employee explaining that Cox Broadcasting had rejected ElcomSoft's request, asking "what can we do?"

There was some discussion here about the employee going on to say (in the email to his boss at ElcomSoft) that he didn't understand American Law.

Burton asked Alexander if ElcomSoft felt their rights had being violated by Cox Broadcasting and he said "Yes." Alexander went on to explain how, because they were only a small Russian software company against a big America company like Cox Broadcasting, the company couldn't really do much about it.

Burton then changed the subject to whether or not ElcomSoft had in fact stop selling the AEBPR software.

"Did you ever stop selling the AEBPR product?" Burton asked.

"Yes." Alexander said.

Alexander explained how, on June 28, 2001, he received an email from RegNow! saying that they had been contacted by Adobe. The next day, Alexander sent an email to a RegNow! employee asking him to stop accepting money for the program.

Burton projected an email on the screen in which RegNow! responds to his request.

Burton read the text of the email out loud: "I am really sorry for any inconvenience. Please disable the AEBPR temporarily until we remove the feature Adobe doesn't like or find another solution."

"Why did you stop selling the product?" Burton asked. "Why not wait until more complete information could be provided?"

"To protect RegNow!." Alexander replied. "I decided that it would be better to pull the software first and then figure out the problem."

Burton asked Alexander a series of questions to help illustrate the dates involved for these emails and the AEBPR takedown:

1) June 28, 2002 - Email sent to ElcomSoft from RegNow!
2) June 29, 2002 - ElcomSoft responds to RegNow and tells them to take it down
3) June 30, 2002 - The software is taken down from the RegNow! website

Burton then asked Alexander another series of questions regarding the undisputed fact (both sides agree) that another non-standard version of the AEBPR software was somehow overlooked by RegNow! that remained available for purchase for 2-3 days before it was removed at the request of ElcomSoft.

This non-standard version of the program was left up on the site until July 3, 2002. Once ElcomSoft was made aware that this other version was still available, it contacted RegNow! to had it removed from the site.

Next up: the prosecution's cross-examination and the defense's re-cross.