A Russian software company accused of contravening a highly controversial US copyright law by creating programs to deactivate electronic book security features was acquitted by a California jury on Tuesday.
In the first legal test of the law, the jury concluded that Moscow-based Elcomsoft did not deliberately contravene the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Elcomsoft specialises in selling password recovery software tools and was accused of deliberately breaching the DMCA by offering software to modify or deactivate the security built into Adobe鈥檚 e-books.
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The DMCA prohibits 鈥渁ny technology, product, service, device, component or part鈥� that circumvents digital copy protection. It is designed to update copyright law to protect creative works from digital copyright infringement. But critics argue that it stretches too far and may restrict legitimate computer research.
Proven intention
The case hinged on whether Elcomsoft had knowingly contravened the law, as the prosecution alleged. The DMCA is an exception in US law in that it must be proven that the law was broken intentionally.
The defence argued that the company鈥檚 tools are not illegal in Russia and pointed out that they had been withdrawn as soon as Adobe鈥檚 objection was made clear.
Critics of the DMCA described the court decision as a victory for programmers鈥� freedom to develop software tools. Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation said: 鈥淭oday鈥檚 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鈥檛 like the tools they build.鈥�
Free Dmitry
Some legal experts say the case may have failed because the US government tried to apply the law too broadly. The prosecution鈥檚 case was weakened because it could not find any pirated e-book copies created using Elcomsoft鈥檚 tools.
The case began in dramatic circumstances in July 2001 when the FBI arrested Elcomsoft employee Dmitry Sklyarov at the Defcon computer security conference in Las Vegas.
Sklyarov wrote the 鈥淎dvanced eBook Processor鈥� sold by Elcomsoft and gave a presentation discussing electronic book security protection systems at the conference.
His arrest triggered worldwide protests from computer programmers and digital rights groups. After months in prison, Sklyarov was released in exchange for testifying against his former employer.