AP: Russian programmer Sklyarov freed on $50,000 bail. Sklyarov’s supporters say there is no evidence anyone has used his program to violate copyrights on electronic books. Adobe dropped its support of the case on July 23.
Even if there was evidence that someone was using this software to violate copyright, this would be a terrible case. That’s the basic issue here.
I was in court this morning when the defense and government announced their agreement to let Sklyarov out on bail. This was a smart move on the government’s part, because the PR has been a disaster for the prosecution. This man was a political prisoner, in my view, and keeping him in jail was a complete outrage.
Sklyarov’s prosecution is rapidly becoming the example of the U.S. government/industry complex run rampant. He should not have been charged with a violation of the grotesque Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Yet he was. And if the government intends to push this case to the limit, it’s risking an outcome it might not want. This law is either unconstitutional or a gross overreaching that will come back to haunt the people who enacted and are enforcing it.
I suspect there will be some kind of plea agreement where Sklyarov admits some misdemeanor — hopefully nothing to do with the DMCA — and gets to go home to his wife and young children. Every day he is here adds stains to the U.S. Constitution, and it’s not worth anyone’s time to pursue this case.
More information is available on the Free Sklyarov site.