[free-sklyarov] Chronicle of Higher Education: "Scholars Defend Russian Graduate Student Jailed in Las Vegas Encryption Case"

[Will Doherty]

   Tuesday, July 24, 2001



   Scholars Defend Russian Graduate Student Jailed in Las Vegas
   Encryption Case

   By ANDREA L. FOSTER



   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.


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Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education