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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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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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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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.

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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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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Here’s the first part (of 2 or 3 total, I’m predicting) of my account of Alexander Katalov’s testimony.

Alexander explained how the Night Administrator for his company had called him on the telephone and woken him up about “a strange email from Adobe.” Alexander went on to explain how his Night Administrator told him that the email sent to them from Adobe said that ElcomSoft had copyrighted material on its site.
Alexander told the Night Administrator that he thought it was stupid to call him up in the middle of the night over it, and that they would work it out in the morning. The Night Administrator called him back again that night, this time at 3am. This time, it was Verio, ElcomSoft’s ISP that was contacting the ElcomSoft, because they too had received a shutdown notice from Adobe over the same AEBPR product, except that the notice they sent to Verio says “within 24 hours”.
Verio is telling ElcomSoft at this point that they are about to shut their entire website down.
Alexander tells his Night Administrator that it’s 3:00 AM and he’s really going to get it in the morning. That it’s absolutely ridiculous that they are selling copyrighted Adobe software on their website, and that all of the confusion can be cleared up in the morning.

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I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that the Jury is still deliberating and they are scheduled to re-examine Dmitry Sklyarov’s video testimony on Tuesday. (I read this in a Wired News article over the weekend, and then confirmed this via email with Judy Trummer, ElcomSoft’s PR person.)
I’m about to post the first in a two or three part segment of my account of Alexander Katalov’s testimony, which I hope to complete by this afternoon.
Then I still have my notes from the RegNow! employee witness to type up, and finally, my synopsis of the Final Arguments.
It’s like a little race for me to finish before the Jury gives their verdict. Lucky for me, it’s a very complex case, and it looks like we have a conscienscious Jury that’s willing to take the time to make the right decision. (They don’t seem to be making any hasty decisions anyway.)
Back in a flash!

Here’s part two of my account of Vladimir Katalov on the witness stand.
You’ll notice that there are more links now within the text. I’ve decided to start integrating the various documents and evidence I’ve been collecting since last year (since July 17, 2001) about the dispute between Adobe and ElcomSoft.
Where the documents are still available in their original location online, I link to them there, with a link my version as a backup. However, some of the emails and message board postings have been removed since last year, so I’m really glad I saved my own copies of them.
I will sprinkle links to the evidence accordingly, as they come up. I’m also in the process of creating an “online evidence” page with everything itemized for easy reference.
I’ll also be going back to my earlier posts and adding links to evidence wherever they fit in.
Two more witnesses (Alexander Katalov and the RegNow! employee) and then off to the Final Arguments…

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