Supreme Court to Take Up DeCSS Case

geekee writes "CNET has posted an article claiming the US Supreme Court will take up a 1999 case involving individuals posting DeCSS on web sites based in the US. In November, the California Supreme Court had ruled that Matthew Pavlovitch could not be sued in CA since he's not a CA resident 'with no substantial contact with California'. The injunction placed before the start of the CA trial will remain in effect. The case is essentially about juristiction when attempting to prosecute a number of defendants simultaneously in order to save on legal fees."

Comments

ReCSS

[jamesjw]

I am surprised there isn't a rogue bunch of do-gooder MPAA avocate programmers out there building a ReCSS..

You know.. to reprotect all those unprotected movies out there in the ether..

Then the MPAA could sue everyone that DOESN'T include a copy of "ReCSS" on their website :)

Outmoded business model

[Peyote Pekka]

The article mentions use of the phrase trade secrets. I suppose now they'll angle for use of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to keep the market place from changing.

Seditious groups like the RIAA/MPAA are fighting a losing battle to try to back up outdated business models with legislation. Copy protection doesn't work, it's even been tried -- and later dropped -- by software companies like Lotus and Ashton-Tate during the 1980's. The role that RIAA/MPAA companies have played in the past has been as a channel for distribution. The Internet is a much more convenient distribution channel and they need to rework their business models to take that into account. DeCSS is perhaps so embarrassing for the RIAA/MPAA companies because it shows where they are falling far short of market needs -- DeCSS allows time-shifting or space-shifting, both of which are not just fully legal, but widely practiced and accepted.

Free as in market...the RIAA and MPAA are hurting the U.S. economy.

NOT a DeCSS Case!!!

[ca1v1n]

This is not a DeCSS case. This is a jurisdiction case. It is definitely news for nerds and stuff that matters, since internet jurisdiction is a really big deal. I doubt there will be much or any discussion of the DMCA in this case. Probably a good thing too, because you generally want your test case to be completely beyond reproach. Not that I think that Pavlovich did anything wrong, but something more along the lines of Felton's SDMI paper would be more attractive to the court.

Re:what about my backups!

[swillden]

Except that, as has already be stated multiple times, you do not need to break the encryption to make the backup.

Except that, in practice, you do need to break the encryption to make a backup. The DVD-CCA has made it extremely difficult for consumers to obtain blank, writable DVD media that can be used for bit-for-bit backup purposes. How? Simple, the region of the disk where the disk decryption keys would be stored is not writable, so you can't copy that part of the original disk.

Of course, large-scale pirates are completely unaffected by this limitation.

Disney says you don't need backups

[swillden]

What I would like to know is how this is going to affect the consumer, because if I remember correctly, any consumer may create a copy of a movie/cd/software that they own and use that "backup" copy in order to preserve the orginal copy of the media.

I noticed an interesting thing in the packaging that came with one of my kids' Disney DVDs last week: You can now register your purchases with Disney and, in return, they will send you a new copy of any registered DVD if the original gets damaged.

On the one hand, this is a very nice benefit for the consumer: I don't have to bother finding ways to back up my DVDs, because if they ever get ruined, the company will ship me a replacement, at their cost. Of course, it only works as long as the company continues to offer the service.

On the other hand, I have to wonder if this isn't just part of their strategy to eliminate Fair Use exemptions. "No, Senator, consumers do *not* have any legitimate need to make copies... Yes, of course we recognize that disks get damaged, which is why we've generously arranged to replace damaged disks, which is a much better solution for consumers since it requires no expensive technology, just a phone call or a letter... Thank, you, sir, yes we think so too... Yes, sir, our contribution to your campaign will be in the mail tomorrow."