Adobe Reverses Stance in Piracy Case
Facing increasing pressure from online activists, Adobe Systems Inc. on Monday abruptly urged the release of a Russian programmer jailed last week for allegedly violating anti-piracy laws by distributing software allowing the copying of electronic books.
The plea for the release of Dmitry Sklyarov marks an about-face for the San Jose software publishing company and is an embarrassing twist for the technology industry’s effort to combat the theft of intellectual property.
Adobe had prodded federal authorities to investigate ElcomSoft Co., the Moscow-based software company where Sklyarov works, and publicly welcomed Sklyarov’s July 16 arrest by FBI agents in Las Vegas on a criminal complaint filed by federal authorities in Northern California.
But Sklyarov’s arrest quickly galvanized online activists, who have turned him into a martyr for their cause. A Boycottadobe.org Web site was formed featuring photos of the baby-faced programmer, pictures of his family and the slogan “Free Dmitry” in large, bold letters. Late Monday, the Web site bannered “We Win!” across its page.
Adobe, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet free speech group, said it was withdrawing its support for the criminal complaint, noting that the software is no longer available in the U.S. and that “the prosecution of this individual in this particular case is not conducive to the best interests of any of the parties involved or the industry.”
It isn’t clear whether Adobe’s withdrawal of support of the complaint will affect the case against Sklyarov. Federal authorities could not be reached for comment.
Sklyarov was arrested under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act for allegedly distributing the software, which breaks the encryption used on electronic books in the popular Adobe Acrobat format. Sklyarov’s program allows people who purchase books in digital form to circumvent protections in Adobe’s eBook Reader, make copies of the book and read it on other computers.
About 100 protesters marched outside Adobe’s headquarters on Monday, carrying Russian and U.S. flags and chanting, “Code is free speech.” Several carried photos of Sklyarov and signs with slogans such as “Visit U.S. Go to Jail.”
Inside the offices of the software company, lawyers from the foundation met with Adobe officials to discuss the case.
“We want to secure his release and get the U.S. Department of Justice to drop the charges,” Robin Gross, staff attorney for the EFF, told Reuters before the meeting started.
Sklyarov, 26, was arrested at a hackers convention in Las Vegas. He is the first person to be prosecuted under the controversial copyright act, which bans the creation or distribution of technology that circumvents copyright protections.
“Dmitry has been arrested and put in jail for doing something that is legal in his home country,” said Don Marti, vice president of the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group and one of the protest’s organizers.
“And the law that was used to arrest him is an unjust law that can be used to shift the balance of copyright away from the reader and give the publisher total control.”
The EFF, founded by Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow and Mitchell Kapor, founder of the software company Lotus, argues that the new U.S. copyright law is flawed because it outlaws technologies instead of conduct.
Sklyarov discussed his program July 15 at the Def Con hacker conference in a talk entitled “eBook Security: Theory and Practice.” He was arrested in his Las Vegas hotel as he prepared to check out and return to Moscow.
Moscow-based ElcomSoft began selling the program a month ago but pulled it off the market after Adobe complained.
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Reuters was used in compiling this report.
