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Corporations Line Up for Expansive Trade Secret Protection
Posted by Ernest Miller on Thursday, August 29 @ 10:27:36 EDT Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Law.com runs an interesting article on the amicus briefs being filed on both sides of the DVDCCA trade secrets case ('Friends' in High Places). You can read many of the briefs at the EFF's archive (Intellectual Property: DVD CCA (DVD Content Control Association) Case Archive). It seems that dozens of large corporations have sided with the DVDCCA in this case, opposing the appellate court decision that held that a preliminary injunction barring the posting of DeCSS violated the First Amendment (DVDCCA v. Bunner (Nov. 1, 2001)).

San Francisco ACLU lawyer Ann Brick summarizes the issue quite well:
The only issue presented by this case is whether the First Amendment permits an injunction prohibiting the disclosure by third parties of lawfully obtained and widely disseminated information because its origins may be of questionable pedigree. The answer to that is no.
The California Attorney General's office is siding with big business, but the argumentation is poor:
Nevertheless, that free-speech claim cannot be used to facilitate the wholesale piracy of DVDs via the Internet, in defiance of federal and state intellectual property law.
Uh, California AG, if this case is about facilitation of copyright infringement, then why doesn't the suit make that claim? There are a couple of handy little claims called "contributory" and "vicarious" infringement just to prosecute certain forms of facilitation of piracy. Heck, there is a law called the DMCA ... but the DVDCCA isn't using it. Let's not turn this case into a case about DVD piracy, since the DVDCCA hasn't brought a copyright piracy lawsuit.

The AG continues:

The Internet cannot serve as a safe harbor where people can escape criminal or civil liability for conduct which would violate federal or state law in the physical world.
And what conduct would that be? What conduct in the physical world is a violation of federal or state law, but is not a violation on the Internet? The decision by the appellate court doesn't rely on the Internet as a special place. The decision pretty much makes clear that Bunner could print DeCSS on t-shirts and sell them on the street corner [Already been done - Ed.], which, for the AG's edification, is the physical world.

There is more fun in the article. Go read it, especially since it will be argued soon.

 
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Related Links
· Law.com
· 'Friends' in High Places
· EFF
· Intellectual Property: DVD CCA (DVD Content Control Association) Case Archive
· DVDCCA v. Bunner
· More about Digital Millennium Copyright Act
· News by Ernest Miller


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