Supporters Rally Behind Arrested Russian Hacker
By Elinor Mills Abreu

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) 


The arrest this week of a 26-year-old Russian software 
programmer accused of violating U.S. copyright law has 
sparked protests and pledges of support from a wide 
range of free speech advocates, defense lawyers and 
consumer groups.

Dmitry Sklyarov, who was arrested on Monday in Las 
Vegas after a major hacker convention there, is the 
first person to be prosecuted under the controversial 
1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web 
sites), federal law enforcement officials said.

Adobe Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:ADBE - news) alleged that 
a program Sklyarov wrote violates that law, which bans 
the creation or distribution of any technology that 
circumvents copyright protections.

``Free Dmitry'' rallies are scheduled for Monday in 
San Jose, Boston, Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, 
Reno and Moscow, according to the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation, a San Francisco-based advocacy group 
focused on free speech issues on the Internet.

EFF representatives are scheduled to meet on Monday 
with Adobe executives in an attempt to broker a 
resolution in the case, a lawyer for the group said on 
Friday.

``Because of the meeting with Adobe we are not 
supporting the protests because we would like to go in 
there and talk to them in good faith about their 
policies,'' said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for 
the advocacy group.

``We want to explore all the options we can for Adobe 
and the EFF in an effort to free Mr. Sklyarov and at 
the same time address public policy issues raised'' by 
the new copyright law, Tien said.

The EFF, which was founded by Grateful Dead lyricist 
John Perry Barlow and Mitchell Kapor, the founder of 
the software company Lotus, argues that the new U.S. 
copyright law, which took effect in 2000, is flawed 
because it outlaws technologies instead of conduct.

The group plans to offer legal aid to Sklyarov, who 
was detained without bail and will be transferred to a 
federal detention center in San Jose.

In an interview with a local Las Vegas television 
station, Sklyarov denied doing anything wrong and 
accused Adobe of bullying him.

``I wrote the program to demonstrate security flaws, 
not to violate copyright law,'' he told station KTNV 
on Wednesday. ''It's not illegal in Russia.''

Sklyarov's program allows people who purchase books in 
digital form, known as ebooks, to get around 
protections in Adobe's eBook Reader designed to 
prevent copies from being made.

In addition to organizing rallies, Sklyarov's 
supporters have created a Web site calling for a 
boycott of Adobe products(http://www.boycottadobe.com) 
that features photos of Sklyarov and his wife and two 
children in Moscow.

An Adobe lawyer did not return calls seeking comment 
on Friday.

Sklyarov's employer, Moscow-based ElcomSoft Co., began 
selling his program a month ago but pulled it off the 
market after Adobe complained, executives said.

Sklyarov's was arrested in Las Vegas just before he 
was scheduled to return to Moscow, officials said. He 
had given a presentation at the DefCon hacker 
convention on his program the day before he was 
arrested.