Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Scholars Defend Russian Graduate Student Jailed in Las Vegas Encryption Case By ANDREA L. FOSTER Washington Computer-science professors and students worldwide are rallying for Dmitri Sklyarov, a Russian graduate student who was jailed in Las Vegas last week for bypassing security mechanisms in Adobe software. Mr. Sklyarov, a student at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, in Russia, was arrested July 16 after giving a presentation to a conference of computer hackers. His talk was on security weaknesses in software used to limit access to electronic books. In addition to being a student, Mr. Sklyarov works for ElcomSoft, a Moscow company whose software can translate encrypted Adobe eBook Reader texts to unprotected files that can be freely distributed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into a complaint by Adobe Systems Inc. that Mr. Sklyarov was illegally distributing copies of software that decrypts electronic books. The Justice Department subsequently charged him with violating the anti-circumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The provision prohibits people from unlocking security devices that restrict access to digital works. In the face of the uproar, Adobe yesterday asked the Justice Department to withdraw the charges. "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," said Colleen Pouliot, senior vice president and general counsel for Adobe, in a prepared statement. Researchers and scholars have long faulted the anti-circumvention provision. They say it hinders scientists' ability to study security flaws in computer software. They also argue that the D.M.C.A. dissuades educators from excerpting passages from scholarly works for classroom instruction. Protests were planned Monday in 13 cities in an effort to pressure law-enforcement officials to withdraw charges against Mr. Sklyarov, and to free him from a Las Vegas jail where he was being held. Many of the protests were located in university cities because students and scientists are organizing the rallies. "We've never seen as much of an immediate response from the academic community as with this Dmitri Sklyarov case," said Will Doherty, a spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Mr. Doherty said mathematicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, have been spreading word about a rally for Mr. Sklyarov in Boston. The foundation, a San-Francisco-based nonprofit group that strives to make electronic data more accessible to the public, had been negotiating with Adobe on Monday in hopes of persuading the company to drop its complaint against the Russian programmer. Among those attending a rally in front of F.B.I. headquarters here in Washington was Andrew J. Downey, a 26-year-old graduate student at George Washington University. He studies computer security and expects to receive his master's degree in engineering management next year. Mr. Downey said it's important for scientists to be able to test the claims of software manufacturers that their products are impenetrable to hackers. "The D.M.C.A. is a bad law," Mr. Downey said. "It protects special interests at the cost of free speech." He also is a Web specialist for Citizens for a Sound Economy, a Washington group that supports smaller government and reduced taxes. Mr. Downey and other protesters had heard about the rally through e-mail lists and the Internet. David S. Touretzky, a computational neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University, has been updating a recently created Web site in an effort to broaden support for Mr. Sklyarov. The site, the Gallery of Adobe Remedies, publishes information about Adobe access-control devices. "Adobe has incredibly inept, sloppy encryption that works as long as nobody tries to break into it," said Mr. Touretzky. Adobe initially released a statement on its Web site saying it alerted government lawyers to the activities of ElcomSoft in order "to help protect the copyrighted works of authors, artists, developers and publishers, and to stop the sale of this cracking software in the U.S." But the statement was removed late Monday afternoon. Matthew J. Jacobs, assistant U.S. attorney for the northern district of California, who filed the charges against Mr. Sklyarov, was unavailable for comment Monday. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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