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.