(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.