E-Book Duplicators Hit Barnes & Noble By Yury Granovsky VEDOMOSTI Barnes & Noble.com, the No. 1 U.S. online book store, halted the sale of electronic books after Russian company Elcomsoft began selling a program to illegally copy text. Under pressure from Adobe Systems, which created the protective software for the e-books, Elcomsoft was compelled to discontinue the sales of its “hacker” program. It is now distributing that program for free. Barnes & Noble.com’s electronic book department was closed from June 26 to 27 until Adobe provided new protection for e-books. Mark Fagnitno, vice president of Barnes & Noble.com, said the Internet store incurred considerable losses due to the pause in sales of new bestsellers by Arthur C. Clark and Steven King, but he did not give any figures. A m a z o n . c o m , frightened by the actions of the Russian company, revamped all Adobe protective software a day later. There are several formats for electronic books with protection from unauthorized copying. The most popular formats belong to Adobe Systems, Microsoft and Gemstar. The user installs a free program into his computer — Adobe’s eBook Reader, for example — which generates a personal electronic certificate that is assigned to a particular personal computer. While buying a book via the Internet, the user sends the online store his certificate number. The store then makes a copy of the electronic text for the user — which cannot be copied, printed or transferred to other computers. However, Elcomsoft developed Advanced eBook Processor software, which can convert purchased books into PDF, a widely disseminated format that makes books available “to everyone and for any purpose” without actually hacking the Internet stores’ servers. This software was offered for sale in late June at www.elcomsoft.com. Alexander Katalov, Elcomsoft’s general manager, said Adobe itself is to blame since it marketed a faulty product. “Adobe is promoting an incomplete technology and isn’t concerned about its safety. No wonder that in an analogy with the musical format MP3, the electronic book world has produced its own Napster and MP3.com,” he said. Katalov added that his software people could crack the new Adobe ebook protection “within half an hour maximum.” Katalov does not consider his actions blameworthy. He says that Advanced eBook Processor, which sold for $100 each, was often purchased by people with poor eyesight since Adobe’s e-book software did not permit the use of programs for reading text out loud. Elcomsoft’s web site also offers programs for “helping users recall the passwords of ICQ and of Microsoft Word documents” — in other words, for cracking the programs. Neither of the companies have brought a lawsuit against Elcomsoft. However, Verio — a U.S. company that is Elcomsoft’s provider along with Digital River, the owner of RegNow, through which the Russian company conducts business — took Adobe’s side after receiving a letter June 25 that described the situation. Verio has terminated the site of the company; later, www.elcomsoft.com had to shift to a new provider. Digital River has stopped taking orders for the disputed program. Under pressure, Elcomsoft has stopped marketing the software — which is now available for free. “We have published the web address from which the program can be taken for free,” Katalov said, “and in the future we will probably publish the cracking algorithm for eBook.” “In this case there could be no claims on the company whatsoever,” said Viktor Mashchenkov, the operating partner of eBuro.ru, a juridical web site. “According to current Russian judicial practice, one can’t be tried for a web address.”