Moscow Times 4 Jul 01 on Elcomsoft vs. Adobe

[Al Qaeda]

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.”