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Cracking Copyright
November 2001
Russian programmer arrested in line with the new Digital Millennium
Copyright Act
The passage by Congress of the 1999 Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) has led to the arrest of a Moscow-based programmer,
an action that has put into question how many software companies will
now do business in the US.
Dimitry Sklyarov, a 26-year-old programmer and cryptographer
who works with the Russian company Elcomsoft while pursuing postgraduate
research in computer sciences, was arrested earlier this year at the DefCon
conference in Las Vegas. Sklyarov was at the conference to deliver a paper
on the encryption techniques used by ebook security firms. Ebooks have
recently been touted as a means for companies to distribute books electronically
in a secure format, employing digital rights management (DRM) software
to ensure that users do not copy such texts illegally. After the furore
caused by Napster and other online systems for sharing music and other
files, book publishers are keen to make use of the Internet but also wish
to protect their intellectual rights.
Adobe has developed software, eBook Pro, as a DRM-enabled
version of its familiar Acrobat portable document format (PDF) application,
allowing publishers to generate texts that can be read as PDFs but cannot
be distributed unless the user agrees with relevant licensing rules. Sklyarov's
paper listed Adobe's software - along with that of several manufacturers
- as capable of being cracked. Indeed, the company he works for, Elcomsoft,
had done just that. Adobe informed federal prosecutors that Sklyarov had
violated the new DMCA and he was arrested by the FBI on 20 August. Adobe
has since distanced itself from the incident, but Sklyarov faces fines
of up to $25 million and 25 years in prison.
Particular concern has been raised by this case because
it implements a much harsher version of copyright than has previously
existed. While current copyright laws typically allow (with some exceptions)
for limited copying under the terms of fair dealing, the ease with which
digital copying takes place has led to a draconian reaction under the
DMCA. According to Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, copyright law
attempts to balance the needs of both producer and user, but when intellectual
property is wrapped in software code the balance shifts to the producer.
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While such legislation currently exists only in
the US, lobbying by publishers and corporations means that the EU
has recently passed the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD)
which shares similarities to the DMCA. The Free Trade Area is pushing
similar laws on all America companies and, in the process, effectively
abolishing traditional 'fair use' rights.
Of particular concern to web publishers is the
fact that under such terms, web sites accused of infringing copyright
legislation may be pulled regardless of whether this is in fact
the case while investigation takes place. What is more, this offence
is held to take place where the user sees the material, not where
it is stored or published, meaning that American courts could close
down sites elsewhere in the world if they feel they violate the
terms of the DMCA.
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Previous
stories
Signing On
Cybecrime in the EU
Policing the web
Napster Goes Legit
Relevant sites
Campaign for Digital Rights
Foundation for Inform-ation Policy
Research
Privacy International
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