Dmitry Sklyarov (Дмитрий Скляров) (born
December 18,
1974) is a
Russian
computer programmer known for his
2001 arrest by
American law enforcement over
software copyright restrictions under the
DMCA anti-circumvention provision.
Arrest
Sklyarov was a PhD student researching
cryptanalysis and an employee of the Russian software company
ElcomSoft, where he created "The Advanced eBook Processor" (AEBR) software. On
July 16,
2001, due to a complaint from
Adobe Systems, a US company, that
copy protection arrangements in its
e-book file format were being violated by ElcomSoft's product, Sklyarov was arrested after giving a presentation called "eBook's Security - Theory and Practice" at the
DEF CON convention in
Las Vegas, Nevada. He was charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures, under the terms of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act and arrested by the
FBI as he was about to return to
Moscow.
The day after his arrest several web sites and mailing lists were started to organize protests against his arrest, many of them under the slogan "Free Dmitry" or "Free Sklyarov". The main point of these campaigns was that no DMCA violations were committed at DEF CON, and the DMCA does not apply in Russia, so Sklyarov was being arrested for something that was perfectly legal in his jurisdiction. A campaign to boycott
Adobe products was also launched.
On
July 19,
2001, the
Association of American Publishers issued a press release announcing their support of his arrest. Adobe initially supported the arrest, but after a meeting with the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, they issued a joint press release on
July 23,
2001, recommending his release. However, Adobe still supports the case against ElcomSoft.
After Sklyarov was arrested he was held briefly in a local jail in
Las Vegas; then he was held in the
Oklahoma City Federal Prisoner Transfer Center until
August 3,
2001, when he was transferred to the Federal building in
San Jose, California.
On
August 6,
2001, Sklyarov was released on a US$50,000 bail and was not allowed to leave
Northern California. The charges against Sklyarov were later dropped in exchange for his testimony. He was allowed to return to
Russia on
December 13,
2001.
On
December 18 2002 following a two-week trial in San Jose, California, a jury found that Elcomsoft had not wilfully violated the U.S. law.
See also
