IP: DeCSS lauded as copyrightable literary work: Good Morning Silicon Valley Thu Jan 25 12:45:12 EST 2001

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

I was originally one of the filers but since EFF is deeply involved with
the suit and since I am a member of the EFF Board, I had to remove my name
but not my personal support of the brief. djf


> DeCSS lauded as copyrightable literary work: A coterie of reputable
> computer science professors from some of the nation's top universities --
> among them <http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/>Brian Kernighan,
> <http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/minsky/minsky.html>Marvin Minsky and
> <http://www.stallman.org/>Richard Stallman -- have filed a
> <http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-bac.htm>friend-of-the-court brief in
> support of 2600 Magazine, the hacker quarterly now knee-deep in a
> <http://www.2600.com/dvd/docs>nasty court battle with the entertainment
> industry over its hosting of the
> <http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/Video/>DeCSS DVD decryption
> utility. The professors have voiced opposition to a lower court injunction
> preventing 2600 from hosting or linking to the controversial technology,
> asserting that <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16359.html>computer
> code is indeed a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.
> "Copyright law already recognizes that code, both source and object, may
> be copyrighted as a literary work or an original work of authorship," the
> scientists wrote. "It does not take a leap of faith to say that a
> copyrightable literary work is a work entitled to full First Amendment
> protections, regardless of its functionality."



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