Free Dmitry Sklyarov

"Arresting a Russian for creating software that is legal in his country but illegal in the United States sets a bad precedent," Jackson said [Chuck Jackson, member of the Federal Communications Commission's technology advisory council]. "It seems to me an awful lot of Americans are going to be a risk in a lot of the world if we set that up as a standard.'"

"We were hopeful that the government would see the wisdom and justice in not pursuing a case against Sklyarov," Burton said. "Even if one were to ignore the serious legal questions involving the (copyright protections), this case hardly cries out for criminal prosecution. Sklyarov's and ElcomSoft's actions are not conduct that Congress intended to criminalize."

"San Jose-based Adobe Systems had complained to the FBI that Sklyarov's employer was selling a program that let users manipulate Adobe's e-book software to the books could be read on more than one computer or transferred to someone else. The program is legal in Russia. Sklyarov's supporters say his work merely restores the 'fair use' privileges consumers have traditionally enjoyed under U.S. copyright law. Adobe dropped its support of the case on July 23."

"It seems wrong for Mr. Sklyarov to be subject to criminal penalties for writing a program that has potentially legal uses, without any obligation on the government's part to prove that he intended to aid piracy."

"It would be nice to disabuse Sklyarov of that notion, but the evidence indicated that, indeed, commercial interests have led Congress to suspend free speech and fair use, and prosecutors have given us notice that we had better watch what we code, what we write and what we link to."

"But even Bingham admits the DMCA may have "trampled on" a very important part of copyright law: fair use."

"The moral of the story is that the DMCA allows you to be tried and judged guilty before you even know what has happened. The MPAA could have my account shut down immediately -– or yours -– and there’s nothing any of us could do to stop it. "

"While some users of digital media have wrestled with the 1998 copyright law's seeming contradictions, it is the Sklyarov case -- the risk criminal prosecution under the law -- that is exposing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to greater public scrutiny."

"Arresting Sklyarov was insane, but there's an increasing tension between people who need and use information and those who want to control it," said Michael Mellin, a consultant who founded Random House's electronic publishing operation."

"This is bad law and bad policy. It not only interferes with the legitimate use of copyrighted material, it undermines security more generally. Research into security and encryption depends upon the right to crack and report. Only if weaknesses can be discovered and described openly will they be fixed."

"Facing increasing pressure from online activists, Adobe Systems Inc., on Monday abruptly urged the release of a Russian programmer jailed last week for allegedly violating anti-piracy laws by distributing software allowing the copying of electronic books"