Russian programmer gets April court date

A federal judge in California on Monday set a hearing for April 15 to schedule a trial date for a Russian software programmer charged with violating a new U.S. copyright law. Dmitry Sklyarov, who turns 27 on Dec. 18, probably won't face trial until June or later. The trial schedule was pushed back by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose, Calif., to allow time for defense attorneys to have evidence translated from Russian into English. In the meantime, hearings were set for April 1 and March 4 for attorneys to discuss motions in the case. Sklyarov and his Moscow-based employer, ElcomSoft, face charges of selling and conspiring to sell technology designed to circumvent the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans the sale of technology that allows people to thwart copyright protections in computer and electronic programs. Sklyarov is the first person to be prosecuted under the controversial law, which took effect last year. The case has prompted Russia to warn its computer experts about visiting the United States. Sklyarov, who pleaded not guilty in August, wrote a program that allows people using Adobe Systems eBook Reader software to copy and print digital books, transfer them to other computers, and have the computer read them aloud. He was arrested in July after giving a presentation on his software at the DefCon hacker convention in Las Vegas and then released 21 days later on $50,000 bail.