[ox-en] California Court Rules for DVD Industry
- From: auskadi <auskadi tvcabo.co.mz>
- Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 07:33:58 +0200
California Court Rules for DVD Industry
DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/montereyherald/business/6614738.htm
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SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts may
block Internet users from posting codes that could be used to illegally copy
DVD movies, in a case that pitted trade secret rights against free speech.
The justices did not resolve whether the code was in fact a trade secret,
leaving that for a lower court to determine. They did rule, however, that
they would not tolerate the posting of legitimate trade secrets online and
reversed a lower court that said disseminating trade secrets was protected
free speech.
The case centered on San Francisco computer programmer Andrew Bunner, who in
1999 posted the code to crack the encryption technology and, according to
the movie industry, helped users replicate thousands of copyright movies per
day.
The DVD Copy Control Association, an arm of Hollywood studios, said it
controls the encryption system, which scrambles data to prevent unauthorized
copying of a movie sold in the DVD format. The association sued Bunner and
others under California's Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
A San Jose judge ordered Bunner to remove the encryption-cracking code from
the Internet. But the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose lifted that
injunction, a move the DVD Copy Control Association said was akin to giving
crooks the technology to reproduce protected material such as movies on a
large scale.
The court of appeal ruled that protecting trade secrets is not as important
as "the First Amendment right to freedom of speech."
A unanimous Supreme Court, however, ruled otherwise Monday.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown, in reversing the appeals court on a 7-0 vote,
said an order to remove the code "does not violate the free speech clauses
of the United States and California constitutions."
The case is not fully resolved, however, because the Supreme Court also
ordered the San Jose appeals court to analyze whether the code is still a
protected trade secret given its widespread exposure. The DVD association
hailed Monday's decision.
"This opinion has wide applications to trade secret law," said association
attorney Robert G. Sugerman. "Owners of trade secrets can now protect those
trade secrets through injunctive relief, which is clearly now available."
During oral arguments three months ago, California Attorney General Bill
Lockyer joined the group in arguing that industry secrets would be plundered
if computer users could post them without court intervention. Companies
including Boeing Co., Ford Motor Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc. urged the
justices to side with the DVD association, arguing that trade secret
protections trump First Amendment speech protections.
Bunner did not devise the decryption code, but instead posted it on one of
his Web sites. The Norwegian teen who cracked the code, Jon Johansen, was
acquitted in Norway in January of charges he stole trade secrets.
Bunner, 26, said he has removed any reference to it from the Internet and is
fighting the case to stand up for free speech rights. He is one of dozens of
people throughout the United States that the association is suing for
posting the code.
He said Monday he believed his actions were lawful, and said he posted the
code to let others play DVDs on their computers.
"The idea was to get it out there for an open-source DVD player," Bunner
said.
His attorney, David A. Greene, said the appeals court could still ultimately
support Bunner's actions because the code's global dissemination may not
grant it status as a trade secret anymore.
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The Opinion can be found at:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/opinions.cgi?Courts=S
--
Martin Hardie
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