Film industry
wins DVD hacker ruling
By Reuters
August 17, 2000 11:49 AM PT
A federal judge Thursday gave the
film industry a victory in a high-profile lawsuit by
barring a journalist from republishing software code
that unlocks scrambling on DVDs, enabling them to be
copied and swapped on the Internet.
Earlier this year, U.S. District
Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York issued a preliminary
injunction barring the defendant Eric Corley,
publisher of 2600,
a top magazine and Web site of the hacker underground,
from posting the code.
The plaintiffs in the case, which
include Hollywood's biggest studios, Seagram Co.
Ltd.'s Universal, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Time
Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., had sought a permanent
injunction.
The case has drawn wide attention as
one of Hollywood's latest attempts to stem a potential
flood of digital video piracy.
After several days of testimony in
July, Kaplan ordered both sides to submit briefs by
Aug. 8, outlining whether computer code could be
considered a legally protected form of speech.
Not protected speech
The judge rejected arguments that
computer code was entitled to free-speech protection
regardless of its use.
In his opinion issued Thursday,
Kaplan said, "... In an era in which the
transmission of computer viruses ... can disable
systems upon which the nation depends and in which
other computer code also is capable of inflicting
harm, society must be able to regulate the use and
dissemination of code in appropriate circumstance.''
Charles Sims, an attorney with the
firm Proskauer, Rose, which is representing the
studios and their trade group, the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA), applauded the ruling.
"This sends exactly the right
message, mainly the courts will protect intellectual
property and reinforce the law Congress passed so
digital content could be put out safely and
effectively and not widely pirated," he said.
"Today's landmark decision
nailed down an indispensable Constitutional and
Congressional truth: It's wrong to help others steal
creative works," MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti said
in a statement.
Appeal is coming
David Atlas, an attorney for Corley
and his publication, told Reuters recently that Corley
would appeal if a permanent injunction is issued.
"No matter who wins, this case
is going to be appealed, probably all the way to the
Supreme Court," he said.
Atlas and Corley's other attorneys
were not immediately available on Thursday.
They have argued there were
significant "fair use" and First Amendment
implications in the case, which is the first to deal
with such issues and likely to have large impact on
the development of technology and the free flow of
information.
The MPAA has maintained the case
simply enforces the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright
Act of 1998. It argues there are no free speech issues
at stake, since the sole purpose of the DeCSS software
in question is to circumvent copyright protection and
gain unauthorized access to DVD movies.
Mirrors Napster flap
In his opinion, Kaplan called
Corley's arguments baseless.
"Defendants' constitutional
argument ultimately rests on two propositions -- that
computer code, regardless of its function, is 'speech'
entitled to maximum constitutional protection and that
computer code therefore essentially is exempt from
regulation by government.
"But their argument is
baseless," Kaplan said.
Corley, 40, has been targeted by the
movie industry for publicizing the existence of a
software utility known as Decode Content Scrambling
System (DeCSS).
This court case represents just one
facet of the entertainment industry's growing dilemma
with protecting copyrighted material on the Internet
as millions of users increasingly share music, movies
and other digital information, often without paying
for the privilege, via MP3, Napster and other
technologies.
The Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) is currently embroiled in another
high-profile case against Napster Inc., which provides
as song-swap service the music industry alleges is a
haven for piracy.
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