The Register Elcomsoft not guilty - DoJ retreats from Moscow

"The Russian software company which has found itself on trial in an American court was acquitted on all counts of circumventing the DMCA today."

"Today's jury verdict sends a strong message to federal prosecutors who believe that tool makers should be thrown in jail just because a copyright owner doesn't like the tools they build," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann."

redux [12.06.02]
The Economist Overkill

"WHEN Dmitry Sklyarov, a young Russian computer scientist, got up to deliver a technical paper at a conference in Las Vegas last year, he little suspected that he was about to become something of a global celebrity. But soon after delivering the paper he was arrested by the FBI for breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 American law that bans any efforts to bypass software that protects copyrighted digital files. The arrest sparked a rash of protests in both America and Europe. The Internet hummed with indignation. Charges against Mr Sklyarov have since been dropped, in exchange for a promise to testify. But the case against his employer, Moscow-based ElcomSoft, went ahead this week in San Jose, California.

The closely-watched trial is the first criminal prosecution brought under the DMCA, a law loathed by Internet enthusiasts. The trial will mark a crucial stage in the growing struggle between industries supplying content and those arguing that overly strict enforcement of copyright may crush the creativity of cyberspace."

redux [10.17.02]
Salon U.S. Embassy to Dmitry Sklyarov: Access denied

"The federal government's case against the Russian software firm ElcomSoft -- the first criminal trial under the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- seems to be in legal limbo after two key witnesses were refused entry into the United States in mid-October."

"It's anything but certain that the visa decision will be reversed. According to immigration lawyers, a consular office's decision cannot be appealed; reversing a visa denial is more a business of perseverance and persuasion than it is about going through a well-defined process."

redux [01.01.02]
News.Com Freed programmer returns to Russia

"A Russian software programmer, freed in November after escaping prosecution under controversial U.S. copyright laws, returned home Monday and praised the support he received from campaigners while in detention.

Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, told NTV television after arriving at a Moscow airport that his release had defied the long odds of trying to defeat the U.S. authorities in legal proceedings."

redux [08.13.01]
The New York Times Software Double Bind
[requires 'free' registration]

"Call it the digital copyright equivalent of having your cake but not being able to eat it. The case of Dmitri Sklyarov, a Russian computer programmer arrested last month in Las Vegas, is drawing attention to a double bind in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law that some legal experts say extends rights to consumers even as it effectively prevents them from exercising those rights.

The law of which Mr. Sklyarov ran afoul makes it illegal to manufacture or distribute a device designed to bypass technology that protects copyright material."

"The law also makes it illegal for individuals to use such a program - even to make a back-up copy of a book or movie or song for themselves, the type of copies traditionally allowed under copyright law. That is where the double bind comes in. Actually making such copies for personal use is not illegal. But it is against the law to break through the copy-protection measure to make the legal copies."

redux [07.30.01]
The New York Times Opinion Page Jail Time in the Digital Age
[requires 'free' registration]

"Dmitri Sklyarov is a Russian programmer who, until recently, lived and worked in Moscow. He wrote a program that was legal in Russia, and in most of the world, a program his employer, ElcomSoft, then sold on the Internet. Adobe Corporation bought a copy and complained to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the program violated American law and that, by the way, Mr. Sklyarov was about to give a lecture in Las Vegas describing the weaknesses in Adobe's electronic book software. Two weeks ago, the F.B.I. arrested Mr. Sklyarov. He still sits in a Las Vegas jail."

Something is going terribly wrong with copyright law in America."

redux [01.23.01]
Cryptome What's Wrong With Content Protection

"Converting the whole world to operate without scarcity is a huge task. Such a large economic shift would take decades to spread through the entire world economy, making billions of new winners and new losers. We will be extremely lucky if by 2030 we are prepared to end scarcity without massive social turmoil, including riots, civil unrest, and world war. If we are to find a peaceful path to an era of plenty, we should be starting HERE AND NOW, transforming the industries we have already eliminated scarcity in -- text, audio, and video. Companies that can't adjust should disappear and be replaced by those who can. As these whole industries learn how to exist and thrive without creating artificial scarcity, they will provide models and expertise for other industries, which will need to change when their own inefficient production is replaced by efficient duplication ten or fifteen years from now. Relying on copy-protection now would send us in exactly the wrong direction! Copy protection pretends that the law and some fancy footwork with industrial cartels can maintain our current economic structures, in the face of a hurricane of positive technological change that is picking them up and sending them whirling like so many autumn leaves."

redux [12.17.00]
Bad Subjects Beyond Copyright Consciousness

"Today's received ideas about intellectual property can be distilled into two major threads: technology killed copyright, and copyright is anachronistic in networked culture. Both of these notions are simplistic and ahistorical, and I'll try to argue that they're shortsighted. What we really ought to be talking about is access to works. Access is related to copyright, but is really more fundamental to our freedom to think and experience. I'd like to propose an expanded access scheme and offer an example of small steps that are being taken in that direction."