Copyright Trial of Russian Firm Delayed

The trial of the U.S. government's case against Russian software company ElcomSoft has been delayed until December because the lead defendant and key witness in the case have been denied visas to travel to the U.S.

During a pretrial conference Thursday, Judge Ronald Whyte pushed back the previously scheduled October 21 trial date to December 2 after ElcomSoft programmer Dmitry Sklyarov and company Chief Executive Officer Alex Katalov were refused visas by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, a representative for the company said.

The delay could potentially shake the government's case, given that the defense plans to file a motion to dismiss based on the Sixth Amendment right for a defendant to confront his accusers, the representative said.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Moscow-based ElcomSoft under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for developing and distributing a software program that allows users to circumvent copyright protections in Adobe Systems' eBook file format.

The case represents the first criminal charges under the DMCA to go to trial, and has been the subject of intense public scrutiny.

DefCon Demo Busted

ElcomSoft and Sklyarov were thrust into the spotlight when the programmer was arrested following the Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas last year, after presenting information on the software product. Although criminal charges against Sklyarov were eventually dropped, in exchange for his cooperation, he remains a key witness in the case against his employer.

ElcomSoft lawyers are currently working with both the DOJ and the State Department to solve the visa problem. A representative for the company said Friday it was unclear why the visas were denied, and added that only "basic policy reasons" were given.

Meanwhile, a representative for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said that it takes a minimum of three weeks to submit a new application. The embassy has been battered in local press recently for its application backlog.

Despite bureaucratic obstacles, ElcomSoft representatives said that they are doing all they can to speed the process.

The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Jose.

Sarah McArthur in Moscow contributed to this report.