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Connectix Wins Sony Playstation Appeal
In one of the many submissions concerning the recent Connectix victory: Enosson writes, "The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the lower court injunction prohibiting Connectix from selling Virtual Game Station or using the Sony BIOS in developing new versions of it. The decision says that its use of the copyrighted BIOS in reverse engineering was "fair use," and that any "shoddiness" in the VGS product did not tarnish Sony's PlayStation trademark. The full text of the decision is available." There is also, as you would expect, mention of the ruling on the Connectix site as well.
I am a lawyer, but this is not legal advice. If you need some,
.).
see a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction.
You are pretty much correct here, but let me extend and comment a bit.
The ninth circuit is indeed the most often reversed, but that tends
to be because of "lefty" decisions where ideology prevailed over the law.
Criminal cases in particular, when judges confuse the rights of the
accused and general population with the rights of criminals.
THis is a technical case, and of a type that the 9th gets a disproportionate
share. It has more experince with this type of case than most of the
otehr circutes, and the case doesn't fall into the categories that give
the 9th its bad reputation (I won't name names, but there's a judge known
as "Judge Certiori" for the near automatic review . .
The decision might also be classified as "pro-commerce," taking it
far out of the type of cases that tend to be reviewd.
As far as the weight outside of the 9th, it's not as dismal as you
paint it. The decision is not *binding* precedent outside of the
9th circuit, but it is *persuasive* evidence. That is, a a federal
judge in another circuit *can* decide it's wrong, but will not do so
lightly.
Finally, the Supreme Court, when possible, waits until conflicting
opinions arise between the circuits before it hears an issue. It is
unlikely to hear this case.
hawk, esq.
Good News: This is the 9th Circuit, so any applicable precedent this sets, would probably be usable in the DeCSS suit (as that suit was filed in California).
Bad News: 9th Circuit decisions are only useful in the 9th Circuit. The 9th Circuit includes a selection of Western states. While the 9th is the largest, its decisions carry no official weight in the other 8 Court of Appeals jurisdictions.
Really Bad News: The 9th Circuit, in recent years, has been the most liberal, and therefore the most overturned, by the Supreme Court. So, if Sony can get the Supreme Court to accept an appeal, then it just might go Sony's way, after all.
Good News: The Rehnquist Court doesn't accept many cases these days. The 9th circuit's decision will probably stand.