IP: Hatch calls MS "knuckle-headed"; Judge limits media in DVD case

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

> Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 12:05:52 -0400
> To: politech () vorlon mit edu
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
>
>
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36817,00.html
>
> DVD Mediation Sans Media
> by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
>
> 6:00 a.m. Jun. 7, 2000 PDT
> NEW YORK -- Michael Eisner can relax.
>
> Reporters may not attend the depositions of movie industry
> representatives in a lawsuit over DVD viewing software, a
> federal judge ruled late Tuesday.
>
> "I find that the First Amendment interest, if there is one, is
> outweighed by the risks," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan
> said during a hearing in New York federal court.
>
> News organizations had asked to be present when Disney's
> Eisner and Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association
> of America were questioned by attorneys for 2600 Magazine.
> The hacker zine is being sued by eight movie studios for
> distributing the DeCSS DVD-decryption utility on its website.
>
> But an angry Kaplan said the presence of journalists would
> give both sides an additional reason to squabble over what is
> confidential or not and delay the start of the trial, which is
> scheduled to begin in July.
>
> "I have every reason to believe that the presence of the
> press would at best engender disputes and difficulty ... and
> at worst encourage even more grandstanding," Kaplan said.
>
> "The likelihood that these scorpions in a bottle are ever going
> to agree on anything is near zero," Kaplan said of the lawyers
> for both sides.
>
> Representatives of Wired News, Times Mirror, the Village
> Voice, and E-Commerce Law Weekly had asked for open
> depositions, saying that the public interest demanded it and
> the law allows it.
>
> [...]
>
>
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36804,00.html
>
> Hatch: MS 'Knuckle-Headed'
> by Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead
>
> 1:20 p.m. Jun. 6, 2000 PDT
> WASHINGTON -- Whatever happens in Microsoft's antitrust
> case, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch says
> it's not personal, only business.
>
> Microsoft-foe Hatch, a Utah Republican, spoke to an industry
> conference Wednesday about topics including privacy, patent
> reform, and the controversy surrounding Napster.
>
> [...]
>
> Hatch described Microsoft's approach to the case as
> "knuckle-headed and hard-nosed. ... I have given (Microsoft)
> advice, and they don't pay any attention to it."
>
> [...]