Free Speech Wins One

Great news: According to John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Santa Clara County Superior Court has denied a request by the entertainment industry to squash all Internet postings - and even mere hyperlinks - relating to information about the cracking of the DVD encryption method.The judge said No to a temporary restraining order, but the fight isn't over. The next step is a hearing in mid-January, when the court will be asked to grant an injunction.This is an enormously important case. We will stay tuned - look for a detailed story in tomorrow's Mercury News and on SiliconValley.com. You should stay tuned, too.DVD Industry Attacks Foundation Of The WebTuesday, December 28, 1999By Dan Gillmore, EJournalThe encryption method used to scramble DVDs to prevent piracy is ridiculously weak. Naturally, it has been cracked. 2600 magazine reported this and posted the cracking software. The DVD industry, which is rich as well as paranoid, has sent its lawyers after everyone who's putting up the code, including 2600.You can argue about whether the act of cracking the enryption scheme was legal or not. You can even argue about whether sites should be liable for posting the code, assuming it's actually illegal.But the industry has gone way over the line. According to a copy of the complaint, posted on a Web site [http://dibona.com/social/dvd/cover/index.shtml] protesting the industry's moves, the lawsuit also attacks Web sites that merely put links to the code. This is an attack on the foundation of the World Wide Web, not to mention a broadside against free speech itself.A court hearing will be held Wednesday morning in Santa Clara County, California. Several Web sites are calling for a protest http://www.dibona.com/social/dvd/index.shtml. I don't endorse piracy. I do endorse a protest of the DVD industry's outrageous tactics.To better understand the entertainment industry's lunacy and arrogance in the DVD-encryption matter, read this solid analysis [http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9911.html#DVDEncryptionBroken] by cryptography expert Bruce Schneier. Bruce is founder and chief technical officer at Counterpane Internet Security Inc. You may also want to let the DVD Copy Control Association know how you feel. That's the trade association responsible for this kill-the-messenger lawsuit. Here's a link to the association's ""Contact Us"" Web page http://www.dvdcca.org/contact.html.

Source: EJournal.com