dmitry sklyarov

Dmitry Sklyarov (Дмитрий Скляров) (born December 18, 1974) is a Russian computer programmer best known for his 2001 run-in with American law enforcement over software copyright restrictions. Sklyarov was a PhD student researching cryptanalysis and an employee of the Russian software company ElcomSoft, where he created The Advanced eBook Processor software, also known as AEBPR. On July 16, 2001, after giving a presentation called "eBook's Security — Theory and Practice" at the DEF CON convention in Las Vegas, he was arrested by the FBI as he was about to return to Moscow and charged with distributing a product designed to circumvent copyright protection measures, under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 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". 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 (EFF), 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. Sklyarov is married with two children.

Dmitry Sklyarov

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