Trial date set for ElcomSoft case

The first criminal trial under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is scheduled to start Aug. 26 in San Jose, Calif., federal court.

On Monday, Federal Judge Ronald Whyte set a trial date in the ElcomSoft case. The Russian software company is charged with violating criminal provisions of the DMCA by providing software that could be used to crack copyright protections on Adobe Systems' e-books. The DMCA criminalizes software that can circumvent copyright protections. The ElcomSoft case first made headlines last summer, when company employee and Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was jailed after giving a speech about the e-book technology during a business trip to the United States. Charges against Sklyarov were later dropped in exchange for his testimony in his company's case.