EFFector 14.3: A victory in DeCSS case; Morpheus P2P case; more(fwd)

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

"The court recognized that trade secrets do not trump the First
Amendment rights of citizens to publish and discuss information readily
available in the public domain," stated David Greene, Executive Director
of the First Amendment Project who argued the appeal before the 6th
District Appellate Court.

According to the court's ruling, "the California Legislature is free to
enact laws to protect trade secrets, but these provisions must bow to
the protections offered by the First Amendment." The court found that
the injunction barring Bunner's publication of DeCSS "can fairly be
characterized as a prohibition of 'pure' speech."

"In an era of expanding dubious legal claims by intellectual property
owners that threaten to stifle speech and innovation, this decision
paves the way for preserving liberty online by balancing legitimate
restrictions with First Amendment guarantees," stated Robin Gross, an
EFF intellectual property attorney handling the case.

The studios objected to DeCSS software, which programmers wrote in the
fall of 1999 as part of an independent project to create a DVD player
for the Linux operating system. In early 2000, DVDCCA filed this lawsuit
against hundreds of Web publishers seeking to ban the publication of
DeCSS. Santa Clara County trial court Judge William Elfving granted the
request for a preliminary injunction on January 21, 2000, and ordered
defendants to remove DeCSS from their personal websites. The case is
expected to go to trial next spring before Judge Elfving.

Andrew Bunner was represented on appeal by David Greene and James
Wheaton of the First Amendment Project, Allonn Levy of San Jose's HS Law
Group, Tom Moore of Tomlinson Zisko Morosoli & Maser in Palo Alto,
Professor Eben Moglen of Columbia University Law School, and Electronic
Frontier Foundation attorneys Cindy Cohn and Robin Gross.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will likely decide soon a separate
case in which EFF appealed an injunction barring 2600 Magazine's
Editor-in-Chief Emmanuel Goldstein from publishing or linking to DeCSS
under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention
provisions. Dean Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law School argued that
case on behalf of the EFF in May 2001.


The 6th Appellate Court's decision overturning the injunction:
  http://www.eff.org/Cases/DVDCCA_case/20011101_bunner_appellate_decision.html

More information on DVDCCA v. Bunner, et al. including legal filings
and media releases:
  http://www.eff.org/Cases/DVDCCA_case/



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