Anti-Adobe Protestors Take to the Streets

\”Free Dmitri Sklyarov!\” was the rallying cry at protests held around the U.S. today. FreeSklyarov.org has information on the protests and the condition of the jailed Russian programmer.

The Adobe/Elcomsoft battle is receiving a huge amount of attention in programming and copyright law circles. The New York Times suggests it is catalyzing resistance to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

The arrest last week of a Russian programmer accused of violating an American digital copyright law has stirred an opposition, both against the law itself and Adobe Systems, the software company that initiated the case against the programmer. The Russian, Dmitri Sklyarov, was arrested last Monday at a computer hacker convention in Las Vegas, where he made a presentation about the security flaws in the encryption software, like Adobe\’s, used to prevent the piracy of electronic books. Mr. Sklyarov, who is being held in a Las Vegas jail, was detained under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which makes it a crime to traffic in devices, like software, that circumvent digital encryption. Violations are punishable by as much as five years in prison and a $500,000 fine. (More)