The Lurker

The Elcomsoft trial

A few interesting snippets from a Washington Post article on the Elcomsoft acquittal:

Jury foreman Dennis Strader said the argument made a big impact on the jurors, who asked U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte to clarify the "fair use" definition shortly after deliberations began.

"Under the eBook formats, you have no rights at all, and the jury had trouble with that concept," said Strader.

[...]

Jefferson Scher, a copyright expert and partner in the Palo Alto law firm of Carr & Ferrell, had predicted before the verdict was reached that jurors might be disturbed by the law's impact on consumers.

"If the jury sits back and says 'wait a second, this means I'm only going to be able to get music that I pay for, I won't be able to burn any music to a CD,' if they start thinking about the consequences of this law, they might say 'to heck with that. Let's acquit,'" Scher said.

What Scher seems to be suggesting is that this might have been an example of jury nullification.

Hopefully Jon Johansen will be acquitted when the verdict in his DeCSS trial comes out in January.

Related topics: Politics