E-Book Case Negotiations Continuing
The filing of formal charges against Dmitry Sklyarov, accused of violating copyright law, will be delayed as negotiations continue over his fate, one of the Russian programmer’s lawyers said Wednesday.
“I don’t want to characterize the talks as getting better or worse,” attorney Joseph M. Burton said. “But if you’re in talks, and you need more time to continue those talks, then you ask for it.”
Sklyarov was to be arraigned this morning in federal court in San Jose, more than five weeks after his arrest under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. As the first arrested under the law, his case is stimulating a reexamination of copyright protections and fair-use rights on the Internet.
Sklyarov, working for a Russian company called ElcomSoft, did the crucial work on a software program that cracks open the encryption on e-book files made by Adobe Systems. An e-book reader using ElcomSoft’s program could, for example, print out a particular text or give an electronic copy to a friend, both of which are forbidden by e-book publishers.
Circumvention of encryption is a crime under the new law, which is why Adobe originally pointed the FBI to the case. Sklyarov was arrested as he left a hacker’s convention in Las Vegas, where he had given a talk on e-book security.
Adobe quickly backed off its original complaint, saying it didn’t want Sklyarov jailed. An anti-Adobe boycott played a key role in the company’s turnabout.
Both sides might have incentive to reach a plea agreement. The 26-year-old Sklyarov, who was freed this month on $50,000 bail, has a wife and two small children in Moscow. Though the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other opponents of the anti-piracy law are eager to see its constitutionality tested in court, they feel the case of Princeton professor Edward Felten is a better test.
Felten was warned by the Recording Industry Assn. of America that he could be sued if he presented a paper analyzing encryption techniques. He is challenging the law on free speech grounds.
Some copyright lawyers have argued that the government’s case against Sklyarov is tenuous. ElcomSoft’s software was legal in Russia. Only a handful of copies were sold here by a third party.
Burton, Sklyarov’s attorney, said today’s request for additional time will be made jointly with the government. The new arraignment date will be Aug. 30.
