DeCSS Injunction Reversed In CA Case

[Warren Togami]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/01/1953236&mode=thread
DeCSS Injunction Reversed In CA Case

"For those of you following the California DeCSS case, a court of appeal
just ruled in our favor, overturning the injunction imposed by a lower
court. The court's opinion is available in DOC and PDF versions. It's a
great read for those who want to really understand the case. The conclusion
is nicely summarized with this quote: 'In the case of a prior restraint on
pure speech, the hurdle is substantially higher [than for an ordinary
preliminary injunction]: publication must threaten an interest more
fundamental than the First Amendment itself. Indeed, the Supreme Court has
never upheld a prior restraint, even faced with the competing interest of
national security or the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.' "

Court's Opinion PDF and DOC files
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/6thDistrict/

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Here is one excellent Slashdot comment on the issue:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23287&cid=2509254

The real issue is the trade secret status of DeCSS (Score:5, Insightful)
by jms on 04:10 PM November 1st, 2001 (#2509254)
(User #11418 Info)
Yes, it's a win, but the court made it perfectly clear that it holds no
opinion on the REAL stakes in this war.

The real stakes are the loss of the DVDCCA monopoly over permissable player
features.

The entire DVD industry, through the DVDCCA, have devised a set of mutual
licensing handcuffs that they are all to wear -- DVD player manufacturers
may not manufacture DVD players with unencrypted digital outputs. They may
not manufacture and sell region-free players. This keeps the ability to make
fair use of DVDs out of the hands of consumers.

If the trade secret status of the decryption algorithms is found to be lost,
then third parties, not bound by restrictive DVDCCA licenses, may well be
free to offer DVD players with such consumer-friendly features as
unencrypted digital outputs, no region codes, and the ability to
fast-forward over unwanted trailers and FBI "notices", while the entire
current DVD player industry will be unable to match those features, due to
their contracts with the DVDCCA, without in effect dissolving the entire
licensing structure and having to compete in, horrors, an open, unrestricted
marketplace.

Those are the real stakes. They have nothing to do with copyright
infringement, and everything to do with what may turn out to be a "suicide
pact" amongst all DVD hardware manufacturers.

The court offers soothing, reassuring words to the DVDCCA and current player
manufacturers:

"We express no opinion as to whether permanent injunctive relief may be
obtained after a full trial on the complaint, as that issue is not before
us.9 We further have no occasion to decide whether damages for Bunner's
disclosure would be appropriate in these circumstances. DVDCCA may, of
course, bring an action for damages or even injunctive relief against anyone
who violates the Act by conduct rather than speech."

"violates the Act by conduct" presumably means to manufacture an unlicensed
player, and that's the real reason that the MPAA/DVDCCA is spending millions
of dollars suppressing DeCSS.