[ILUG] the adobe arrest...

[Gerard J Keating]

Below please find an article from todays New York Times which may be of
interest.

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> 
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> U.S. Arrests Russian Cryptographer as Copyright Violator
> By JENNIFER 8. LEE

> In one of the first cases of criminal prosecution under a 1998 federal 
> digital copyright law, a 27-year-old Russian cryptographer was 
> arrested at a Las Vegas hotel on Monday morning, a day after giving a 
> presentation to a large convention of computer hackers on decrypting 
> the software used to protect electronic books.

> Dmitri Sklyarov, who was being held in Las Vegas without bail, is 
> being charged with one count of trafficking in software to circumvent 
> copyrightable materials and one count of aiding and abetting such 
> trafficking. Mr. Sklyarov is expected to be transferred to San Jose, 
> Calif., where he would face charges of violating the Digital 
> Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law that limits the unauthorized 
> copying of digitized material. Mr. Sklyarov is one author of a 
> software package released in June that breaks through electronic book 
> encryption developed by Adobe Systems Inc. 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, 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. 
> BarnesandNoble.com briefly halted distribution of Adobe-format electronic
> books last month, listing them as "out of stock," from June 26 to June 27
> while Adobe updated its encryption software. ElcomSoft said Adobe's
> changes were superficial and released a new demonstration version of the
> decryption program shortly after Adobe's update.
> Over the last several weeks, Adobe has aggressively pursued ElcomSoft,
> forcing it to switch Web-host services several times by sending
> cease-and-desist notices to Web service companies. Adobe also met with the
> F.B.I. on June 26 to discuss the impact of ElcomSoft on its business.
> As a result of pressure from Adobe, ElcomSoft stopped selling its Advanced
> eBook Processor software, which initially cost $100. Instead, the company
> created a demonstration version that decrypts only a portion of an
> electronic book, and made that available free on its Web site. 
> Although Mr. Skylarov is a Russian citizen and ElcomSoft is based in
> Moscow, the sales of the product took place partly in the United States,
> since a United States-based company called Register Now handled the
> financial processing. Scott Frewing, one of the assistant United States
> attorneys who is handling the case, said that despite the borderless
> nature of the Internet "the question of jurisdiction was not particularly
> in contest in this case."
> In his technical presentation on Sunday to an audience of several hundred
> people at the conference, called Def Con, Mr. Sklyarov argued that the
> security behind Adobe's widely used Acrobat Portable Document Format,
> known as PDF, is inherently flawed. "E-book distribution based on PDF
> technology is insecure," he said. 
> Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer who has written a popular textbook on the
> subject, agreed. "Trying to secure this is like trying to make water not
> wet," he said. "Bits are copyable by definition."
> Nevertheless, companies are determined to protect their products and are
> looking to the copyright act for help. "No software on the market is 100
> percent secure to determined hackers," said Susan Altman Prescott, vice
> president for cross-media publishing at Adobe. "We're confident that we
> are taking all of the right steps on an ongoing basis to incorporate the
> most sophisticated technologies available."
> 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. 
> The pursuit of criminal charges against an individual employee rather than
> the company drew surprised reactions. "I thought maybe I would be arrested
> because I am the owner and the president of the company, but not Dmitri,"
> said Mr. Katalov, who also attended the conference. "But I think this is
> the easiest way to send a message that it is a single Russian hacker at
> work, but really it is the entire encryption that is flawed."
-- 
Gerard Keating              Tully
Fintrax Teo                 Ballinahown
Tel: +353 91 558205         Galway
Fax: +353 91 558222         Rep. of Ireland