In the face of protests from Internet activists, a US company has backed down from its push to prosecute a Russian hacker for violating digital copyright laws.
Russian programmer Mr Dmitry Skylarov was arrested last week in Las Vegas for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 US law that prohibits many forms of digital copying.
Mr Skylarov is accused of breaking the "E-Book" code, a format used by the Adobe Systems company to distribute digital books. This would allow PC users to make unauthorised copies of the books.
Adobe had claimed the format could not be deciphered, and had complained to US officials about Mr Skylarov’s actions.
A California programmers alliance and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an online free speech organisation, protested the arrest, and demonstrations were staged by online activists yesterday in front of Adobe's San Jose, California offices.
Early today, Adobe said it would not push for Mr Skylarov’s punishment.
"The prosecution of this individual in this particular case is not conducive to the best interests of any of the parties involved or the industry," Ms Colleen Pouliot, general counsel for Adobe, said in a statement.
"Adobe will continue to protect its copyright interests and those of its customers."
"Adobe, through pressure from the software programming community, has come to realise that this is a private commercial dispute, not a criminal matter," said Mr Don Marti, vice president of the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group, which advocates the open exchange of software codes.
Earlier, Adobe said the government had "unilaterally decided to arrest Mr Dmitry Skylarov."
The America Association of Publishers (AAP), a book publishing trade group, has praised Mr Skylarov's arrest, as a step towards protecting the rights of authors in the digital age.
Ms Matt Jacobs, a spokesman for the US attorneys office in San Francisco said no decision on Mr Skylarov’s prosecution has been made.
AFP