Category Archives: U.S. vs. ElcomSoft – Comprehensive Coverage

Pre-Verdict Interview With Sklyarov for CNET

(BTW, I haven’t forgotten about my Final Argument coverage — I just got swept away by the holidays for a few days…)
Sklyarov reflects on DMCA travails
By Lisa M. Bowman for CNET.

Sklyarov laments that he wasted a year and a half dealing with the legal wrangling surrounding the product he developed. But he’s learned to take it in stride. He passed time in jail by reading books from the inmate library, including Ken Follett’s “Night Over Water.” And when he was not allowed to return to Russia for four months following his release from jail, Sklyarov wrote code for ElcomSoft from an apartment in the United States.
Sklyarov said he didn’t have to give up anything significant to get the government to set aside the charges against him last year. He thinks prosecutors backed down because they didn’t have a good case against him.
“Most probably they understand that they couldn’t prove that I am violating the law, so for them it’s much more safe to…release me, to let me return back to Russia,” Sklyarov said.
Sklyarov left to return to Russia the day after the defense wrapped up its case. He said he plans to spend more time with his wife and two children when not teaching and working on ElcomSoft projects he described as too complicated to explain. Meanwhile, he hopes to concentrate on coding and leave arguments about the DMCA to lawyers.
He said if someone came to him with another project focused on cracking copyright protections, “I would ask you, if you’re sure this is legal.” If the answer is unclear, Sklyarov said he would suggest the person find a lawyer who could figure it out.

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Partial Transcripts from ElcomSoft Trial Now Available

Cryptome has made a number of transcripts from the trial available.
Looks like I got most of it right in my accounts! (Give or take a few words!) Cool!
I’ll be doing a comparison later. (Later….later…….so much to do…)
I’ll also be creating another category for “Comprehensive Coverage” of the ElcomSoft Trial.
(Delays…always delays….)

More On How The Jury Decided

Software firm acquitted in first digital copyright law case
By Howard Mintz for the Arizona Daily Star.

The jury, however, sided with ElcomSoft, which maintained since the case broke into the public spotlight last year that it believed it was marketing a legal product and was unaware that it was violating the DMCA. Jurors said after the verdict that the government failed to prove that ElcomSoft willfully intended to violate U.S. copyright laws, the high standard required to obtain a conviction under the 4-year-old copyright act…
Dennis Strader, the jury foreman, noted that ElcomSoft openly sold its software, taking no steps to conceal its conduct before being warned of problems by Adobe. Strader added that some jurors were concerned about the scope of the law and whether it curtailed the “fair use” of material simply because it was electronic.
“Under the eBook formats, you have no rights at all, and the jury had trouble with that concept,” Strader said.

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BusinessWeek On The ElcomSoft Case

This is a great article except for the (often incorrectly reported) part about Dmitry testifying “against his former employer.”
The facts are: 1) ElcomSoft is Dmitry’s current employer, and 2) He didn’t do anything against anyone; He just testified. Here’s the story on that issue.

Digital Copyright: A Law Defanged?

Cyberlibertarians who denounced the feds’ prosecution of a Russian programmer have their victory, but not the precedent they really need
By Alex Salkever for BusinessWeek Online.

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ElcomSoft Trial: RegNow! Employee Takes The Stand

I’ll have the Final Arguments posted tomorrow morning.

Burton then asked Ryan if there had been a non-standard version of the AEBPR product that remained available on RegNow’s website for a few days after the standard version of the AEBPR product had been removed.
“Yes.” Ryan said. “A discounted version for previous users of another product was still active.”
Burton asked Ryan to explain how that happened.
“It was an oversight on our part.” Ryan said. “We were all focusing on the email from Adobe which just mentioned the one product.”
Ryan went on to explain that the non-standard version of the product was also disabled as soon as Alexander Katalov contacted RegNow! to inform it of the situation.

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ElcomSoft President Takes The Stand – Part 4

Here is the final segment of Alexander Katalov’s testimony.
The employee from RegNow! is up next after this…

Burton presented the same license agreement that Frewing had presented up on the screen.
“Did ElcomSoft consult with a lawyer before using this license for your software?” Burton asked.
“No.” Alexander replied.
Burton showed a more recent version of the same license agreement that had been modified slightly.
“Did you consult with a lawyer?” Burton said.
“No.” Alexander replied. “I got it from the ASP (Association Software Professionals) website.”

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ElcomSoft President Takes The Stand – Part 3

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.”

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ElcomSoft: Back to the Grind

Okay. So, even though we all know how the trial came out yesterday, I’m still going to finish my account of the various testimonies and final arguments — so you can understand better about where the Jury was coming from with their Not-guilty verdict.
Later this week, I’ll be interviewing Defense Attorney Joseph Burton about his experiences with the case.
I had to take a bit of a breather yesterday after this last week’s events. Sorry for the hold up on the rest of this stuff. Back soon.

ElcomSoft Found Not Guilty On All Counts!

Yippie!!
Jury Finds ElcomSoft Not Guilty
By Joanna Glasner for Wired News.

Russian software developer ElcomSoft has been cleared of charges that it illegally created a program to disable encryption on Adobe e-books.
The jury verdict, announced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, concludes the first criminal trial of a company accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal statute that protects copyrights on electronic content…
The verdict comes on its third day of deliberations. Jurors had asked to review several pieces of evidence, including a videotaped deposition of ElcomSoft programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, prior to reaching the decision.

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ElcomSoft President Takes The Stand – Part 2

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.”

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