Moscow Times on Adobe-DCMA-Atrocity

[Al Qaeda]

http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=1532

Moscow Times covers Adobe PDF eBook decryption --
                                     in PDF
                                     ElcomSoft stops selling disputed
software, makes limited demo freely
                                     available on Internet

                                     8 July 2001

                                     Adding a bit of an ironic twist to
the brewing
                                     legal matter on alleged copyright
                                     infringement between Adobe Systems
and
                                     Moscow-based ElcomSoft Ltd., The
Moscow
                                     Times reported the latest events in
its July 4
                                     edition -- available in PDF.
Meanwhile,
                                     Adobe Systems was closed the week
of the
                                     national U.S. holiday.

                                     In a page 9 article titled "E-Book
Duplicators
                                     Hit Barnes & Noble," the online,
                                     English-language newspaper quotes a
Barnes
                                     & Noble VP as saying the company's
Internet
                                     store "incurred considerable losses
due to the pause in sales of new bestsellers."
                                     The company stopped sales for a day
late last month to allow Adobe to release
                                     version (2.2) of its free Acrobat
eBook Reader, an upgrade with enhanced
                                     security that could not be
decrypted by ElcomSoft's commercially available
                                     Advanced Ebook Processor (AEBPR)
product.

                                     The Times reports that -- as had
previously been forewarned in coverage on our
                                     Planet eBook sister site -- in
response to Adobe's threatened legal action for
                                     copyright infringement, ElcomSoft
is now giving away an updated, reduced
                                     functionality version of AEBPR.
According to the company's Web site, this free
                                     demo version of AEBPR 2.2 has been
modified to support limited decryption -- 25
                                     percent of the content -- "only to
demonstrate that Adobe technology (used in
                                     Adobe Content Server, Adobe WebBuy
and Acrobat eBook Reader) is still weak."

                                     "The electronic book world has
produced its own Napster," Alexander Katalov,
                                     Elcomsoft's General Manager, told
the Moscow Times. He also reportedly denied
                                     blame for any wrongdoing, pointing
to PDF security as the real issue. In
                                     defending the company's initial
development and sale of AEBPR, he told the Times
                                     that the product "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."

                                     In fact, Adobe's eBook Reader
                                     does allow ebooks to be read
                                     aloud (when using a computer
                                     with voice activation
                                     capabilities) -- *if* the
                                     publisher, not Adobe -- chooses
                                     to grant that permission.

                                     Adobe had threatened ElcomSoft with
copyright infringement in violation of the
                                     Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), specifically Section 1201 -- for
                                     circumventing its rights-protection
designed to guard the rights of publishers and
                                     authors. In legal circles, there
currently are debates taking place over the use of
                                     encryption systems for digital
content that are more restrictive for users than
                                     laws dealing with printed books.
For example, its commonplace -- and legal -- for
                                     someone to re-sell a printed book;
as an ebook, with most current technologies,
                                     that would be considered a
violation of copyright.

                                     The Moscow Times' article cites the
operator of a
                                     Russian Web site on copyright as
saying that by
                                     simply posting a URL where it now
freely gives
                                     away AEBPR, ElcomSoft is safe from
prosecution
                                     "according to current Russian
judicial practice."

                                     Adobe Systems -- known in the
industry for its strong anti-piracy litigation --
                                     seems likely to put that notion to
a test, while needing to take steps to further
                                     strengthen PDF security and to
educate users on proper security implementation
                                     techniques -- keeping in mind there
is no perfect, never-fail solution.

                                     Like The Moscow Times, part of
Independent Media, The St. Petersburg Times
                                     newspaper also publishes
English-language news from Russia -- also in PDF.

                                     The complete 31-page, July 4 issue
is available online -- as a large PDF file [PDF:
                                     6.2 MB] (and also in HTML).