FBI Arrest of Russian Software Developer May Trigger Copyright Fight
- From: J Flenner <varney@[redacted]>
- Subject: FBI Arrest of Russian Software Developer May Trigger Copyright Fight
- Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 10:56:00 -0400
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/nwlink.cgi?ACG=ZZZ8P3T7DPC
FBI Arrest of Russian Software Developer May Trigger Copyright
Fight
EFF says arrest could be rallying cry for
overturning Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Brenda Sandburg
The Recorder
July 20, 2001
The FBI's arrest of a Russian software
developer this week has intensified efforts by
civil liberties groups to overhaul a
controversial copyright law.
On Monday, federal agents nabbed Dmitry
Sklyarov in Las Vegas where he was attending a
convention of computer hackers. He was charged
with trafficking software designed to
circumvent copyright protection technology,
specifically, software that decrypts security
measures on Adobe Systems Inc.'s eBook Reader.
An Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco
said this is either the first or second time
that someone has been arrested for violating
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The 1998
law prohibits anyone from overriding a
technological device that controls access to a
copyrighted work.
"I think this could be a rallying cry to get
the DMCA overturned or repealed from this level
of uber copyright protection," said Robin
Gross, staff attorney at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation.
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