Source: Mercury News, ©1999 Mercury Center
Ban On DVD Hack Rejected
Movie Industry Rebuffed In Battle Against Software By Deborah Konk, Mercury News Staff Writer
A Santa Clara County judge on Wednesday refused to stop Web sites from posting software that copies movies stored on DVDs by defeating a copy protection system. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Elfving denied a request by the movie industry to not only ban sites from posting the software, but also to prevent other sites from linking to them. Attorneys for defendants named in the DVD Copy Control Association's suit said the decision was a victory for free speech. Requiring sites to remove links would set a worrisome precedent, said attorney Allonn Levy. ``From a societal standpoint, we think it's really dangerous to use this type of tactic to force Web operators to have to investigate every single thing they link to or that they post on their site,'' Levy said. ``It would have said that operators of Web sites are responsible for investigating whether their links violate any type of trade secret or copyright patent, which is a pretty tough burden for lay people.'' Attorneys for the DVD Association could not be reached for comment. The DVD Association said in its complaint that the sites have ``willfully misappropriated'' trade secrets and that they are ``misusing proprietary confidential information gained through improper means.'' In a hearing Wednesday morning, the association's attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, told the judge, ``The harm to us if this is not granted will, indeed, be irreparable and severe.'' The judge's decision will apply until January 14, when a full hearing will be held on whether to permanently prevent sites from posting the information. The suit names 21 people who operate Web sites with the software and another 72 sites that host the software or provide a link to sites that do. The DVD Association objects to the availability of software and computer codes that allow consumers to copy DVDs, five-inch discs that hold movies and can be played on TVs or PCs. DVDs have a copy protection system that scrambles the movie to prevent people from copying and potentially distributing it. But this fall, new information that lets people crack the DVD security system and copy DVDs began popping up on Web sites. Computer users say they have the right to scientific inquiry. ``That's what these people did when they looked at, `How do these guys protect DVDs?' '' said John Gilmore, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ``They have the right to take apart a DVD drive and figure this out, or take apart a piece of software.'' Consumers should also be able to make copies of DVDs for personal use, Gilmore said, just as people are legally able to tape a TV show or tape a record they own. The content-scrambling systems in DVD drives prevent people from making legally permitted copies, he said. Dozens of Linux enthusiasts attended Wednesday's hearing. They took notes on laptops and wore Linux T-shirts, and when an attorney stumbled over the pronunciation of ``Linux,'' several voices corrected him. Unlike those who use computers with the Windows or Macintosh operating systems, Linux users can't watch DVDs because the manufacturers of the DVD drives haven't built that capability into them. Linux users say they don't intend to use the software to pirate DVDs. Instead, they said, they want to use the program to view DVDs on computers with the Linux operating system. ``We want to buy a movie we enjoy and play it,'' said Dan Kaminsky, who waited in the court hallway until the judge issued his decision Wednesday evening. ``We don't want to take 10 million copies and sell it.'' The program has spread to thousands of sites, and countless others have links to sites with the program, Levy said. At the hearing, many people carried paper copies of the computer code that were left in a box outside the courtroom, and Ryan Salsbury, a software programmer, handed out disks with the code from a large shopping bag. ``There's just no way you can close the barn door four months after it's been open,'' Levy said at the hearing. ``The truth is, anybody who wants this information already has it.'' ACLU attorney Chris Hansen, who specializes in computer legal issues, said the DVD Association's efforts are ``futile'' because it is impossible to police Web sites around the world. What the industry will probably turn to next is creating stronger copy protection technology, he said. ``Given the fact they're never going to get jurisdiction over the foreign Web sites, I'm skeptical they're ever going to be able to get enough injunctions to solve the problem,'' he said.