IP: DVD Hackers Hit With Lawsuit

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 23:59:14 -0800
From: John Gilmore <gnu () toad com>
Sender: owner-cypherpunks () toad com
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 6c1028e29a2b2edd87ff51c2c4cf875b

EFF is sending two lawyers (and me) to the court in Santa Clara
tomorrow AM to fight the temporary restraining order. We're on the
case, at least for the TRO and preliminary injunction. We're looking
for permanent pro bono counsel to lead the entire case. Bay Area
cypherpunks are invited to attend. Dress like a banker if you can,
come whether you did or not, and let's impress the judge with how many
solid citizens come to watch how s/he handles the case. The notice
below says 8AM, but if you get there before 9:30 my guess is that you
will still catch the hearing. See the details at:

http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect12.04.html


> Date: 29 Dec 1999 00:45:27 -0000
> From: Secret Squirrel <secret_squirrel () nym alias net>
> To: cypherpunks () toad com
>
> [And all the king's horses and all the king's men...]
>
> DVD Hackers Hit With Lawsuit
> Chris Oakes
>
> 7:00 a.m. 28.Dec.1999 PST
> The DVD industry sued 72 hackers and Web-site authors Tuesday for posting 
> -- and even linking to -- software that unlocks the system for preventing 
> illegal copying of DVDs.
>
> The DVD industry alleges that "each of the Doe defendants ... operate 
> Internet Web sites ... which disseminate confidential proprietary [Content 
> Scrambling System] information," the DVD Copyright Control Association 
> charged in a suit filed in a California Superior Court.
>
> The suit came after hackers unlocked the copy-protection system and began 
> posting the recipe on Web sites in the fall.
>
> Motion-picture industry lawyers had reportedly contacted at least two 
> programmers involved in developing the cracking utility "DeCSS" and asked 
> them to delete information from their Web sites.
>
> Programmers first created the allegedly illegal software because of the 
> lack of DVD playback software for the Linux computer operating system. A 
> group of Norwegian programmers set out to reverse-engineer Windows player 
> software to figure out how to handle playback, and DeCSS was born. It 
> allows knowledgeable users to copy any DVD movie to a file that ranges 
> between 4.7 and 9.4 GB.
>
> The suit said the protection scheme was unlocked by "'hacking' and/or 
> improperly reverse-engineering software created by CSS licensee Xing 
> Technology Corporation."
>
> The source code of DeCSS was first posted on the Internet by Norwegian Jon 
> Johansen, the suit said.
>
> The popular hacker gathering site Slashdot is itself named as one of the 
> defendants in the case, simply for providing links to sites that posted 
> the code. Seventeen other sites were charged in the suit for similar linking.
>
> But in a massive show of open-source legal defense, Slashdot organizers 
> are using a unique strategy: If they're coming after everyone who posts or 
> links to the code, let's give them something to go after. To that end, the 
> cracking code has been freely disseminated in Slashdot posts, along with 
> encouragement that people copy and post it Internet-wide.
>
> "Make the code ubiquitous and it simply won't matter any more," said one 
> Slashdot poster. The strategy originally began after industry lawyers 
> first threatened a lawsuit. Soon, a dozen activists had placed copies of 
> DeCSS online, along with an index site containing links to all of them. 
> The site has since been removed. The number appears to be growing, 
> although some the sites appear to have removed the code.
>
> In a letter posted online in November, Johansen said, "I know very well 
> that they would not win in court, but they could make a big mess out of 
> it. I simply do not have the time, nor money, to go up against these 
> people." He said he decided to pull the link down.
>
> DVD's security system was intended to be hacker-proof, but a Norwegian 
> group calling itself Masters of Reverse Engineering figured out how to 
> circumvent it, raising fears that illicit trading of digital movies could 
> cost the entertainment industry millions of dollars.


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A Happy Holiday and a safe New Year

from Dave and GG Farber

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