[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Appeals judges jab at 2600 lawyer during DeCSS oral




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 1 May 2001 19:01:13 -0400
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Appeals judges jab at 2600 lawyer during DeCSS oral arguments
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,43470,00.html

   DVD Piracy Judges Resolute
   By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
   2:05 p.m. May. 1, 2001 PDT

   NEW YORK -- A trio of federal judges lobbed sharp questions on
   Tuesday at a law school dean who argued it should be legal to
   distribute a DVD-descrambling utility.

   The judges, from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, spent an hour
   quizzing attorneys for both sides in Universal Studios v. Remeirdes
   et al, a high-profile case that has pitted Hollywood against the
   open-source community.

   The panel of three judges appeared to be more sympathetic to the
   legal arguments raised by the entertainment industry.

   Judge Jon Newman predicted the widespread availabity of the DeCSS
   descrambling utility would boost piracy of DVDs. "Not a remote
   theoretical possibility, but a highly likely virtual certainty,"
   Newman said.

   Kathleen Sullivan, the dean of Stanford Law School, said the panel
   should rule the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- which a
   district judge said outlawed DeCSS -- was unconstitutional, or at
   least did not apply to her client, hacker-zine 2600 Magazine. Last
   year, a coalition of movie studios sued 2600 for distributing a
   copy of DeCSS.

   Sullivan compared the controversial DMCA to a "kind of digital
   straightjacket" that restricts even people who purchase DVDs from
   copying them or using them in other ways, such as using digital
   excerpts in presentations, that courts have deemed permissible
   under U.S. law.

   "It's as if the laws, as applied, say you can't print a blueprint
   of a copying machine," Sullivan said.

   [...]



----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing
list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To
subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This
message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---

------- End of forwarded message -------