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DeCSS Injunction Reversed In CA Case

kinesis writes: "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.' " Or you can go straight to the PDF.

22 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. Damn by wiredog · · Score: 5, Funny

    I told Valenti that we needed to pay those judges more. Ah well, I wonder how much an Amendment costs?

    1. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      PRICE LIST FOR JUDGES, CONGRESSCRITTERS, AND VARIOUS POLITICIANS

      We accept cash, credit cards, and checks. Please, no CODs.

      Lower court judges - $70000 to $80000 depending on moral stance of judge and previous history of payments.

      Marilyn Hall Patel - $900000 for a Napster-like copyright dispute. $5500000 to defend against Napster-like copyright dispute

      Judge Kaplan - $80000000 if member of MPAA. Subtract $5000000 if dealing with those skript kiddies at 2600.

      APPEALS COURT

      Our prices for appeals court judges vary widely, but generally can be pinned between 50 million and 60 million dollars due to the judges' high moral fiber, wealth, and influence. It is also more difficult to discreetly bribe an appeals court judge

      AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION

      We price constitutional amendments at a very competitive rate . Our $90 billion Constitutional Package covers bribes to congresscritters, all 50 state legislatures, and for a FREE bonus, a massive advertising campaign blitz that will convince Joe Q. Luser that your Intellectual Property amendment guarantees them lower prices and helps the economy.

      Don't delay. Order today!

    2. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'll take 2.

      You do realize that this post, as anonymous, qualifies as a terrorist activity, and that Slashdot has to give up your ip address, and then your ISP will give up your details to the FBI.

      Have a nice day.

  2. Pinch me. by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's been so long since the right thing has happened in an intellectual property-related case, that I don't believe it.

  3. So.... by WD_40 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now can I wear my T-shirt with DeCSS code on it without going to jail?

    --

    "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925

    1. Re:So.... by Jburkholder · · Score: 2, Funny

      >after the court case is over and RIAA et. al. have won

      The recording industry is also joining this lawsuit now!!?? Those bastards!

      You'd think they'd be satisfied with having run Napster into the ground, but nooooo! Now they have to jump on the DeCSS bandwagon as well, eh? ;-)

  4. HEADLINES by throx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ashcroft locks up Appeals Court.

    In an unprecedented move, Attorney General John Ashcroft locked up all the Appeals Court judges while waving his arms in the air screaming something about terrorists. In a later statement he made the comment "How could anyone imagine anyone but a terrorist thinking free speech was somehow more important than national security?". Reporters who asked provocotive questions were also taken away for correctional training.

    --

    Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means

    1. Re:HEADLINES by Tim+Doran · · Score: 2, Funny

      See? SEE? Geeks using CODE to communicate!

      Thank god for free speech - use it at will, folks ;)

  5. Thank Goodness, I don't have to worry about ELPs by Syllepsis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, it is certainly a good thing that the Supreme Court holds that a language having a "functional aspect" is still protected speech.

    Now I can rest easy that when good english language processors come about and all human language is source code we will still have a first amendment.

    Besides, it was really taking my little brother a long time to decrypt some of my DVDs with the instructions I told him in English.

    Duhhhh....

  6. PDF? by chas7926 · · Score: 3, Funny

    >>Or you can go straight to the PDF.

    Aren't we supposed to be boycotting Adobe?

    --
    Linux User #296508 Get Counted!
    1. Re:PDF? by alcmena · · Score: 4, Funny

      Only on Monday and Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursdays we are boycotting all movies. All other days is choose-your-own-boycott day.

    2. Re:PDF? by ethereal · · Score: 2, Funny

      I could never handle those choose-your-own-boycott books; I'd always read through looking for the good boycott endings, and then backtrack for which story I had to read in order to see that company fail :)

      --

      Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and

  7. Cheap by powerlord · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't worry, Amendments are cheap.

    We have lots of Congressman and Senators paid for.

    Maybe we can borrow a President from Microsoft for a while so we don't have to wait for our 2/3rds majority to be paid for.

    --
    This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  8. Perl Code by -stax · · Score: 3, Funny

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    # 472-byte qrpff, Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz
    # MPEG 2 PS VOB file -> descrambled output on stdout.
    # usage: perl -I :::: qrpff
    # where k1..k5 are the title key bytes in least to most-significant order

    s''$/=\2048;while(){G=29;R=142;if((@a=unqT="C*", _) [20]&48){D=89;_=unqb24,qT,@
    b=map{ord qB8,unqb8,qT,_^$a[--D]}@INC;s/...$/1$&/;Q=unqV,qb2 5,_;H=73;O=$b[4]>8^(P=(E=255)&(Q>>12^Q&gt ;>4^Q/8^Q))>8^(E&(F=(S=O>>14&7^O)
    ^S*8^S>=8
    )+=P+(~F&E))for@a[128..$#a]}print+qT,@a}';s/[D-H O- U_]/\$$&/g;s/q/pack+/g;eval

  9. Re: This just rocks... by slow_flight · · Score: 2, Funny

    while (!TiredOfHearingIt)
    System.out.println("This decision Rocks!");

    System.out.println("Score one for the good guys!");

    --

    Karma: Professionally Doomed (mostly affected by inability to keep opinions to self)
  10. Re:I'm sorry... by Shadowlion · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does bringing up the Holocaust count as a Nazi reference?

    If so, he lost the argument. :)

  11. Re:Boasting by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 2, Funny

    Those nasty kids. We didn't have any real evidence against them, but they were so disrespectful.

    MPAA Lawyer: We'd have gotten total control, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!

    Rooby-Roo!

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  12. Re:OT: Tagline meaning by scott1853 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, it's way to scary to program in assembler now-a-days. The human brain can't store both Perl and Assembler code, so one of them has to go.

  13. M$ move by ocie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quick. Someone at RedHat, Mandrake, or some other distribution put out a DVD player package. Make a big stink about "innovation" and "giving the customer what they want" If the govt. tells you to stop, counter with:

    1) "stop what?"

    2) "it is too tightly integrated w/ the OS"

    3) "we need to innovate"

    4) "OK, we'll change the name of the program"

    --
    JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
  14. Re:Why America Doesn't Suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Of course, the British did have a revolution (remember Oliver Cromwell), but the poor bastards actually wanted their monarchs back.

  15. Don't read the PDF while you are at work... by mark-t · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... if you have a propensity to make somewhat loud jubilant vocal proclamations when you read good news. I did... it went something like "Yes! Yes! Yes! Woohoo!" The loudness turned more than a few heads, and I had one guy privately ask me if I was trying to show that guys could fake it too.

  16. Re:My Favorite citation from the Decision: by Danse · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shouldn't matter. There are some pretty well obfuscated english texts too. They still get first amendment protection though, regardless of whether most people can figure out what the hell they're saying.

    --
    It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer