A San Francisco law firm put arguments to US District Court
Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose, California, in an effort to have
criminal charges against Moscow-based Elcomsoft dismissed.
The charges were brought under the US Digital Millennium
Copyright Act which forbids the cracking of anti-copying systems.
The controversial case had previously been targeted at one of
Elcomsoft’s software engineers, Dmitry Sklyarov. Charges against
Sklyarov were recently dropped.
According to Wired News, Elcomsoft’s lawyer, Joseph Burton, told
Judge Whyte that Elcomsoft’s actions “occurred in Russia or on the
internet, and we take the position that the internet is a place”
outside of US jurisdiction.
Reuters notes that he added, “It is a novel argument.” Burton
explained to the court that the Russian company was not targeting
its software to Americans but that it was instead available to
anyone on the internet.
Wired News reports that the opposing argument was made that the
internet is a “physical presence” made up of many computers in the
US and that Elcomsoft maintained a server in Chicago, used a US
billing service, made no effort to prevent US citizens accessing
its site and engaged in e-mail correspondence with US
customers.
The judge's decision on this preliminary argument is still
awaited. If the argument fails, the trial should begin on 1st
April.
