Protestors call for release of Russian programmer

Despite the Electronic Frontier Foundation's decision to withdraw from actions late Friday, protests aimed at freeing jailed Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov were planned for 21 cities worldwide today.

Sklyarov was arrested in Las Vegas on July 16 after the conclusion of the Def Con hacker conference where he had presented material on eBook encryption [See "Russian arrested for alleged DMCA violations," July 18]. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Sklyarov at the behest of Adobe Systems Inc. for allegedly violating the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that makes it a crime to traffic in information, tools or software designed to circumvent copy-control technology.

Sklyarov, a programmer for Moscow-based ElcomSoft Co. Ltd., is the author of Advanced eBook Processor, a program that can convert e-books from Adobe's more secure eBook Reader format to the Adobe's less-secure, but more widely used PDF (portable document format). Adobe's eBook format restricts the user from doing a number of things with the file, including backing it up, printing it, or copying and pasting from it. Advanced eBook Processor returns these options to the legal purchaser of the eBook.

The EFF, a leading cyber-rights organization, had taken a central role in organizing demonstrations, but withdrew from the actions last Friday when Adobe agreed to meet with the organization to discuss EFF's concerns.

In Boston, more than 40 demonstrators from the Free Software Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other local companies gathered to hand out flyers and give speeches urging Sklyarov's release. Hoisting signs that read "RIP Fair Use," "Free Dmitry," "Adobe vs. Constitution" and carrying a coffin with the words "fair use" and the date Oct. 20, 1998 -- when the DMCA was passed into law -- the group came together to protest the "death of freedom," in the words of "Major Tom," distribution manager of the Free Software Foundation.

The rights to quote from texts, to lend them to friends and to make personal backup copies is threatened by the DMCA, as is the very existence of libraries, according to the protestors. Adobe's eBook format poses a threat to the traditional consumer rights of Fair Use and First Sale, many experts argue. Fair Use allows users to quote from documents for noncommercial purposes, as well as to make personal copies of them. First Sale allows users to resell materials that are legally purchased.

What will happen in 50 years, when no on uses Adobe's eBook program any longer and has no way to access data stored in that format, asked C. Scott Ananian, a graduate student in computer science and one of the organizers of the Boston protest.

"Will our fair use rights be preserved when we don't use paper anymore," he asked.

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