IP: Court upholds ban on DVD-cracking code

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Court upholds ban on DVD-cracking code
> By Evan Hansen
> Staff Writer, CNET News.com
> November 28, 2001, 6:40 p.m. PT
>
> A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld an order that prohibits
> publishing or linking to DVD-cracking code--a decision with sweeping
> significance for free speech rights and copyright protection on the
> Internet.
>
> The decision for now upholds a controversial law known as the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and prevents Web site 2600 and its
> publisher, Eric Corley, from posting links to computer code known as
> DeCSS--a program that allows DVD movies to be decoded and played on
> personal computers.
>
> Joining a growing consensus among courts across the country, the
> Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York found that computer code
> is speech and therefore entitled to some First Amendment protections
> under the U.S. Constitution. But the court concluded that the
> material in this case is "content-neutral," and therefore entitled to
> considerably less protection than "expressive" content such as poetry
> or a novel.
>
> ...
>
> http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8011238.html


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