[Seth-Trips] Bunner reminder [wild@eff.org: [E-S] EFF: California Supreme Court to Hear DVD Case, Publication of DVD Decryption Information Is Constitutional]

[Seth David Schoen]

As previously mentioned on seth-trips.

----- Forwarded message from Will Doherty <wild at eff.org> -----

Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 14:10:02 -0700
From: Will Doherty <wild at eff.org>
Subject: [E-S] EFF: California Supreme Court to Hear DVD Case, Publication of
	DVD Decryption Information Is Constitutional

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 27, 2003


Contact:

Gwen Hinze
  Staff Attorney
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  gwen at eff.org
  +1 415 436-9333 x110 (office)

David Greene
  Executive Director and Staff Counsel
  First Amendment Project
  fap at thefirstamentment.org
  +1 510 208-7744


California Supreme Court to Hear DVD Case

Publication of DVD Decryption Information Is Constitutional

San Francisco - The California Supreme Court has scheduled a
hearing for May 29, 2003, on a key legal challenge to the
publication of information regarding the decryption of DVDs.

In the case, called DVD-CCA v. Bunner, California resident
Andrew Bunner was one of thousands of republishers of the
DVD-decryption software called DeCSS throughout the U.S.
and the world. The court will review an appellate court
decision that held that a preliminary lower court order
preventing Bunner from disclosing in any language and in
any medium the information regarding the decryption of DVDs
violated his First Amendment rights.

DVD-CCA, the organization that licenses DVD technology for
Hollywood movie studios, originally filed the lawsuit in
December 1999 and obtained the preliminary anti-publication
order shortly thereafter. DVD-CCA named hundreds of people
in the lawsuit, including those who printed DeCSS on
T-shirts. DVD-CCA contends that republication of DeCSS
improperly disclosed its trade secrets despite the fact
that the program was widely available. It is uncommon for
trade secret owners to attempt to restrict publication by
members of the public with whom they share no contractual
relationship or who were not involved in the original
discovery and disclosure of the trade secret.

Bunner republished DeCSS on his website after reading about
it on Slashdot. He is the only defendant who has appealed
the preliminary injunction.

"DeCSS was publicly available throughout the world when
Bunner published the DVD-decryption information on his
website and when the court issued a preliminary injunction,"
said EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "DeCSS is obviously
not a trade secret since it's available on thousands of
websites, T-shirts, neckties, and other media worldwide."

"We're confident the Supreme Court will recognize that
DVD-CCA v. Bunner is a classic First Amendment case, just
as the Court of Appeal did," said David Greene, Executive
Director of the First Amendment Project and main author of
Bunner's legal briefs. "The trial court failed to apply
the commonly-recognized constitutional test for
restrictions on the publication of 'confidential'
information in DVD-CCA v. Bunner when it issued the
preliminary injunction."

Another branch of the case, DVD-CCA v. Pavlovich, ended this
spring when DVD-CCA decided not to appeal a California
Supreme Court decision that it was improper to force Matthew
Pavlovich, another alleged republisher of DeCSS, to come to
California to defend the trade secret claim.

In other DeCSS-related litigation, the original publisher of
the program, Norwegian teenager Jon Johansen, was acquitted
of all criminal charges. The Norwegian government has
appealed that decision, and the case is currently scheduled
for re-trial in December 2003.

The Supreme Court hearing in DVD-CCA v. Bunner is scheduled
for 9:00 am on May 29, 2003, in the courtroom at 350
McAllister Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco, California.

This advisory:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/20030527_bunner_supremecourt_pr.php

DVD-CCA v. Bunner and Pavlovich case archive:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/

6th Appellate Court decision overturning Bunner injunction:
http://www.eff.org/sc/20011101_bunner_appellate_decision.html

Jon Johansen case archive:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/

EFF Board member and Boalt Hall School of Law Professor Pam
Samuelson's new paper on trade secrets and the First
Amendment:
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~pam/papers/TS%201st%20A%203d%20dr.pdf


About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at
http://www.eff.org/

About First Amendment Project:

The First Amendment Project is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of
information, expression, and petition. FAP provides advice,
educational materials, and legal representation to its core
constituency of activists, journalists, and artists in
service of these fundamental liberties and has a website at:
http://thefirstamendment.org/

                           -end-





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

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Very frankly, I am opposed to people
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   | being programmed by others.
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |     -- Fred Rogers (1928-2003),
                                       |        464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984)