[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Dmitry Sklyarov can go home -- but must testify against Elcomsoft

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 13 Dec 2001 19:28:30 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Dmitry Sklyarov can go home -- but must testify against Elcomsoft
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


U.S. v. Sklyarov lawsuit archive:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sklyarov

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http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/html/2001_12_13_sklyarov.html

   U.S. Department of Justice

   United States Attorney
   Northern District of California

   11th Floor, Federal Building
   450 Golden Gate Avenue, Box 36055
   San Francisco, California  94102

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

   Tel: (415) 436-7200
   Fax: (415) 436-7234

   December 13, 2001
   The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of
   California announced  that Dmitry Sklyarov entered into an
   agreement this morning with the United States and admitted his
   conduct in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Whyte in San Jose
   Federal Court. Under the agreement, Mr. Sklyarov agreed to
   cooperate with the United States in its ongoing prosecution of Mr.
   Sklyarov's former employer, Elcomsoft Co., Ltd.  Mr. Skylarov will
   be required to appear at trial and testify truthfully, and he will
   be deposed in the matter.  For its part, the United States agreed
   to defer prosecution of Mr. Sklyarov until the conclusion of the
   case against Elcomsoft or for one year, whichever is longer.  Mr.
   Sklyarov will be permitted to return to Russia in the meantime, but
   will be subject to the Court's supervision, including regularly
   reporting by telephone to the Pretrial Services Department.  Mr.
   Sklyarov will be prohibited from violating any laws during the
   year, including copyright laws.  The United States agreed that, if
   Mr. Sklyarov successfully completes the obligations in the
   agreement, it will dismiss the charges pending against him at the
   end of the year or when the case against Elcomsoft is complete. Mr.
   Sklyarov, 27, of Moscow, Russia, was indicted by a federal Grand
   Jury on August 28, 2001.  He was charged with one count of
   conspiracy in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
   371, and two counts of trafficking for gain in technology primarily
   designed to circumvent technology that protects a right of a
   copyright owner in violation of Title 17, United States Code,
   Section 1201(b)(1)(A), and two counts of trafficking for gain in
   technology marketed for use in circumventing technology that
   protects a right of a copyright owner in violation of Title 17,
   United States Code, Section 1201(b)(1)(A). In entering into the
   agreement with the government, Mr. Sklyarov was required to
   acknowledge his conduct in the offense.  In the agreement, Mr.
   Sklyarov made the following admissions, which he also confirmed in
   federal court today: "Beginning on a date prior to June 20, 2001,
   and continuing through July 15, 2001, I was employed by the Russian
   software company, Elcomsoft Co. Ltd. (also known as Elcom Ltd.)
   (hereinafter "Elcomsoft") as a computer programmer and
   cryptanalyst. "Prior to June 20, 2001, I was aware Adobe Systems,
   Inc. ("Adobe") was a software company in the United States.  I was
   also aware Adobe was the creator of the Adobe Portable Document
   Format ("PDF"), a computer file format for the publication and
   distribution of electronic documents.  Prior to June 20, 2001, I
   knew Adobe distributed a program titled the Adobe Acrobat eBook
   Reader that provided technology for the reading of documents in an
   electronic format on personal computers. Prior to June 20, 2001, I
   was aware that documents distributed in the Adobe Acrobat eBook
   Reader format are PDF files and that specifications of PDF allow
   for limiting of certain operations, such as opening, editing,
   printing, or annotating. "Prior to June 20, 2001, as a part of my
   dissertation work and as part of my employment with Elcomsoft, I
   wrote a part of computer program titled the Advanced eBook
   Processor ("AEBPR").  I developed AEBPR as a practical application
   of my research for my dissertation and in order to demonstrate
   weaknesses in protection methods of PDF files.   The only use of
   the AEBPR is to create an unprotected copy of an electronic
   document.  Once a PDF file is decrypted with the AEBPR, a copy is
   no longer protected by encryption.  This is all the AEBPR program
   does. "Prior to June 20, 2001, I believed that ElcomSoft planned to
   post the AEBPR program on the Internet on the company's website
   www.elcomsoft.com.  I believed that the company would charge a fee
   for a license for the full version of the AEBPR that would allow
   access to all capabilities of the program. "After Adobe released a
   new version of the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader that prevented the
   initial version of the AEBPR program from removing the limitations
   or restrictions on an e-book, I wrote software revisions for a new
   version of the AEBPR program. The new version again decrypted the
   e-document to which it was applied.  The version of this new AEBPR
   program offered on the Elcomsoft website only decrypted a portion
   of an e-document to which it was applied, unless the user had
   already purchased a fully functional version of the earlier version
   and had both versions installed on the same machine. The new
   version was developed after June 29, 2001. At that time, Elcomsoft
   had already stopped selling the program. The version of this new
   program offered on the Elcomsoft website did not provide a user
   with an opportunity to purchase it or convert it to a fully
   functional one, and was developed as a matter of competition. "On
   July 15, 2001, as part of my employment with Elcomsoft, I attended
   the DEF CON Nine conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.  At the
   conference I made a presentation originally intended for the
   BlackHat conference that immediately preceded the DefCon Nine in
   July 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The same group of people organizes
   both BlackHat and DefCon Nine.  Since there was no available slot
   for a presentation at BlackHat at the time when the paper was sent
   for the committee consideration, the organizers of both conferences
   suggested that the paper be presented at the DefCon rather than at
   BlackHat.  The paper that I read at DefCon is attached as  Exhibit
   A.  A principal part of my presentation is comprised of my research
   for the dissertation.  In my presentation when I said "we", I meant
   Elcomsoft." Mr. Sklyarov's employer, Elcomsoft, remains charged in
   the case, and the Court in that matter has set hearings for various
   motions on March 4, 2002, and April 1, 2002. The prosecution of
   Elcomsoft is the result of an  investigation by the Federal Bureau
   of Investigation. Scott Frewing and Joseph Sullivan of the Computer
   Hacking and Intellectual Property ("CHIP") Unit are the Assistant
   U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of
   legal technician Lauri Gomez. A copy of this press release and key
   court documents filed in the case may also be found on the U.S.
   Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. All press
   inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to
   Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415)436-7181 or
   Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Nadel, Chief of the CHIP Unit, in San
   Jose at (408)535-5032.

   Matt Jacobs' signature



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