Adobe Comments On ElcomSoft and Copyright Issues

"No software on the market is 100% secure from determined hackers."

July 13, 2001

An Adobe representative has commented for the first time since WSJ originally broke the story of how a Russian software company, Elcomsoft, had begun selling software designed to break the security placed on many PDF-based eBooks.

Speaking to Planet eBook on the company's actions, its position on copyright, piracy and software encryption, Adobe System's Kevin Nathanson, Group Product Manager, eBooks, said that:

"In our opinion, this is not an issue of 'Adobe vs. Elcomsoft', but an issue of copyright protection. With our recent actions, Adobe is simply protecting our copyright interests and those of our customers under the U.S. law. As you know, piracy and software hacking is not a new issue for the industry. Adobe utilizes sophisticated industry standard levels of software encryption however, no software on the market is 100% secure from determined hackers."

The issue has sparked lively discussions around the Web, including on our own Planet PDF Forum, as well as security-, hacking- and ebook-related discussion lists.

Last week Adobe Systems claimed that ElcomSoft infringed on the copyright of publishers and authors by developing a program that removes all security from PDF-based eBooks. ElcomSoft countered that claim, saying PDF was "absolutely insecure", but has since stopped selling its eBook decryption software, instead now offering a limited functionality demo version free on the Internet.


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