[free-sklyarov] News Radio Australia (Aunty ABC here)

bruce bmcconac at bigpond.net.au
Sun Jul 22 12:01:59 PDT 2001


Dear Aunty

Congratulations Shaun Walker/ Alan Gaskel et al. (Yeah and I like the sports coverage too!) on a most informative and interesting news radio line-up each morning. I only get to listen between about 6.00 and 7.15 each morning so I do not necessarily hear everything.

There is a fast breaking story that you have not yet covered (and I cannot find any reference on your website) that has enormous implications for all out futures. The future of e-books and academic research hangs in the balance at this very moment. I refer to the FBI case against Dmitry Sklyarov.

On 16 July 2001, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested by federal agents in Las Vegas, Nevada. His crime: pointing out major security flaws in Adobe PDF and eBook software http://www.boycottadobe.com/. (Most of these links can be obtained from the above site).

Sklyarov was in Las Vegas to present a paper at a convention on eBooks Security: Theory and Practice. In this paper, he disclosed that Adobe's security features in their eBook and PDF software was woeful. 

Rather than thanking Dmitry Sklyarov and sending him and his company a healthy-sized check, Adobe instead decided to call in the FBI to prosecute him under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.
The DMCA is a flawed piece of US federal legislation which attempts to bring US copyright law into the 21st century. In this it fails miserably. One of the provisions of the DMCA is that it makes circumventing a security protocol a felony. By building a program that shows how simple it is to defeat Adobe's pathetic attempts at eBook and PDF security, Sklyarov has therefore been charged with trafficking in a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures.

The New York times reported it thus:

Mr. Sklyarov is one author of a software package released in June that breaks through electronic book encryption developed by Adobe Systems Inc. (news/quote) He faces up to five years in jail and a $500,000 fine. 

This is the first criminal case under the act involving electronic books, a small but competitive industry in which the players include Adobe, Microsoft (news/quote), Palm and Gemstar. Other high-profile cases involving the act, including one that involves decryption software for DVD's, have mostly been civil suits.

Mr. Sklyarov, a tall, lanky graduate student with a lopsided smile, is currently completing his Ph.D. at Moscow State Technical University. His dissertation, which examines the security of electronic book software, was the basis of his presentation, entitled "E-Book Security: Theory and Practice." He is the father of two young children.

Mr. Sklyarov is an employee of ElcomSoft, a small, Moscow-based company that has recently drawn the ire of Adobe for distributing a software package that circumvents Adobe eBook Reader software by converting encrypted books to unprotected files, which can then be distributed freely. 

As a researcher (I currently co-supervise a PhD student at the University of Queensland) it is vital that laws such as the DMCA are never enacted/enforced in Australia. Unprotection of files is not a crime and can have important legitimate uses. As a petroleum geologist/geochemist, I have used the ElcomSoft program written by Sklyarov et al. and I can provide the following comments.

1.The software works simply and efficiently.

2. The software enables researchers to quickly edit or update diagrams or text produced by adding their own data with appropriate acknowledgments to quickly produce new research results. It just makes everything quicker and simpler. For example, this years Australian Petroleum and Production Exploration Association Journal http://www.appea.com.au/ was issued with passwords to prevent access other than simply viewing all the published articles. One of the programs Sklyarov co-authored allows access to the Adobe pdf files so that new research and understanding can quickly be created.

Ironically, as reported in the New York Times, both the CIA and FBI are also clients of Elcomsoft and use programs written by Sklyarov. "ElcomSoft is a 20-person company best known for its password recovery software for programs like Microsoft Word and Quicken, produced by Intuit. According to Aleksandr Katalov, president of ElcomSoft, the company's clients include many United States government agencies, including the F.B.I. and the Central Intelligence Agency". 

Some of the best coverage of this issue is provided by planet e-book.

I would also like to refer you to the DCMA flyer because I think it covers the copyright issue quite accurately.

Many more aspects of this situation have been canvassed on the web and there are many more links I can send you but the critical aspects at this time are to:

1. Let people know that this situation will impact everyone - even if they don't realise it!

2. Avoid the situation that where America goes Australia follows. If Australia is to have any hope of sustaining a research base we must not follow the DCMA path - despite the protestations of corporations and publishers who would relish the profits of a closed information market.

3. People like Dmitry Sklyarov should not be in jail, they should be paid lots of money to write more programs that aid researchers.

Free Dmitry Sklyarov 

Protests are currently planned across America and Moscow for tomorrow.But explaining the issues to ordinary people are critical at this stage. How appropriate for News Radio. Right up your IT-techno-commercial-corporate-world wide alley. We just have to work a sports angle!

Bruce McConachie



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