US visits get cold shoulder from Russians

The Russian government has advised its country's software engineers against visiting the US following the controversial arrest of Russian cryptographer Dmitri Sklyarov.

Sklyarov, who was arraigned last week, was the first person to be charged under the much disputed Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

He was arrested at the Def Con conference for distributing copyright breaching software affecting Adobe's digital-book eBook technology.

If convicted, Sklyarov could face up to 25 years in prison.

A statement from the Russian foreign ministry in reference to the DMCA, said: "We want to point out to all Russian specialists cooperating with U.S. firms in computer programming and software design that, whatever the outcome of Sklyarov's case, they may fall under the jurisdiction of the 1998 Act on the territory of the United States."

Russia has no such law, or indeed anything similar in legislation.

Only last week an unidentified US programmer claimed to have cracked the encryption in Microsoft's electronic book software 'Reader', but he refuses to come forward for fear of being brought up on similar charges to Sklyarov's.