SAN JOSE, Calif.  —  Charges will be dropped against a Russian computer programmer accused of violating copyrights on software made by Adobe Systems Inc. in exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, a spokeswoman for the programmer said Thursday. 

Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

Sklyarov and his employer, ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow, were charged with releasing a program that let readers disable restrictions on Adobe's electronic-book software. The program is legal in Russia. 

Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a hacking convention in Las Vegas on July 16. He lives with his wife and two children in an apartment in San Mateo and has been working on his doctorate in computer science.