***Pulled from Scientist Ends Crusade Against Copyright Law at Newsbytes***

A Princeton University professor today announced that he would end his legal challenge of a controversial U.S. copyright law that he says was invoked to prevent him from publishing research that exposed holes in recording industry-backed anti-piracy technology.

Princeton professor Edward Felten and his team of scientists said they would not appeal a New Jersey federal court's decision to dismiss their case against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Felten announced the decision through the San Francisco- based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has been representing his scientific team.

Although the RIAA admits that it sent a letter to Felten last year warning him that he could face prosecution under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) should he publish his research, the industry group later retracted the threat, calling the letter a "mistake."

That retraction, coupled with assurances from the U.S. government that the DMCA does not apply to scientific research, prompted the New Jersey court to dismiss the case last November.

"I think the scientists decided that they would take the RIAA at its word," EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn said of the Felten team's decision not to appeal the case. "They were quite anxious to get on with their work."

Despite the RIAA retraction, Felten and the EFF had asked the court to definitively rule that the RIAA could not invoke the DMCA to squelch scientific research.

But the RIAA argued that the whole incident had been a misunderstanding and further urged Felten to publish his research, which he did at a technology conference in August.

Cohn called Felten's victory a mixed blessing.

"On the one hand, we're frustrated that we are not going to be able to get the law narrowed," Cohn said. "On the other hand, its hard to be disappointed when you win."

Cohn said that the EFF remains worried that the RIAA and other industry groups could invoke the DMCA - which establishes civil and criminal penalties for people charged with violating copyrights online - to chill the constitutionally protected speech of other scientists.

"This is going to come up again. The DMCA is a bad law," Cohn said.

The EFF and other civil liberties groups continue to challenge the law on other fronts - most notably in the federal government's criminal case against Russian software firm Elcomsoft, which stands accused under the DMCA for publishing software capable of circumventing security features in Adobe eBooks.

Cohn said too that the EFF would remain vigilant against DMCA-based threats.

"Should the RIAA decide that they want to change course yet again and try to stifle scientists, we'll be there," Cohn said.

The RIAA was not immediately available for comment on this story.