Sega wants to silence advice on hacker sites

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2931893.html?tag=st.ne.1002.tgif.ni

By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 4, 2000, 1:30 p.m. PT

Citing piracy concerns, Sega of America is seeking to shut down a
handful of Web sites and message boards that discuss its Dreamcast
game system, leading one publication to fight back with charges of
censorship.

Sega has launched a campaign of cease-and-desist letters against a
list of Web sites that provide news about pirated Dreamcast games,
including release information, reviews, credits and some
instructions. Although most of these sites are shutting down rather
than facing the giant, at least one news site is fighting back, saying
that the copyright holders have gone too far.

Jennifer Granick, the attorney representing Web site Isonews, says
Sega has stepped over the line in asking her client to kill a message
board devoted to the Dreamcast player. The request, she says, could
put new limits on what kind of speech is deemed legal inside a
bulletin board-style forum service.

"Really this is a wholesale attack on the concept of unmoderated
forums because they theoretically allow people to post information
about copyrighted material," Granick said. "By that logic, you could
shut down Usenet newsgroups. You could shut down AOL's forums."

Sega's efforts come as companies and publishers are struggling to
figure out how copyright law translates online and if a rising tide of
online piracy can be stemmed under existing rules.

An attorney for Sega demanded late last month that Isonews.com and
several other sites remove their Dreamcast-focused sections or face
legal action, citing the Web sites' history of providing "guidance" in
how to make illegal copies of Dreamcast games and instructions on
downloading and burning the games.

Isonews says it has a policy of taking down any links to actual games
or software, which is conceded by Sega's lawyer. However, "your
efforts to prevent your forum participants from posting Dreamcast file
links and requests have not been entirely successful," Sega attorney
Daniel Harris wrote in an email to the Web site.

Harris also focused on the Web sites' forums, saying that those areas
must be closed because potentially illegal information had been posted
there.

At this point, Isonews and Sega are in the early stages of a legal
standoff. Sega has demanded that Isonews take down the Dreamcast
portions of its site. The operators initially took down all Dreamcast
information but now have reposted reviews and information about
cracked games, while keeping the Dreamcast forums closed.

The year-and-a-half-old site says it doesn't want to get into a
protracted legal battle--it's run by volunteers and does not have the
funding to take on an opponent like Sega. No lawsuit has yet been
initiated by either party.

Granick says Sega's request amounts to an unconstitutional violation
of free speech rights. Sega can contact Isonews about specific
information or a link it believes is infringing, she says--and this is
routinely done under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which
outlaws so-called circumvention tools aimed at disabling copy
protections. But demanding that Isonews remove the entire Dreamcast
forum section goes beyond the bounds of existing copyright law, she
contends.

Sega itself says that it's not worried about news content and if that
were all it had found, it would not be pursuing the potential of legal
action.

"We're very sensitive about First Amendment rights vs. property
rights," said Leonard Slootmaker, Sega's general counsel. "We're not
trying to stop news; we're just trying to stop piracy."

A new legal front?
The Sega letters, at least in the case of Isonews, appear to be
testing the boundaries of copyright law in several respects.

Although the site does discuss games and activities that are illegal,
its editorial content is not so clearly out of legal boundaries,
attorneys say. First Amendment law does go a long way to protect
publishers' rights to discuss illegal acts in detail and even give
instructions on how to perform them. Publishers can be sued if they
are deemed to have published illegal content such as pornography or
libel but cannot be prevented in advance from disseminating the
information.

Isonews contends that it is simply a news site, although admittedly
with controversial content.

"We are a nonprofit news and information site that reports alleged
acts of piracy while providing the Internet public a forum to discuss
matters of copyright infringement with the benefit of current
information," Isonews contributor Wayne Chang, a Massachusetts high
school student, wrote in an email interview.

Letters received by several other Web sites included contentions that
the sites had illegally provided copies of copyrighted Sega game
documentation or artwork. An email to Isonews did not cite specific
infringements and avoided those issues.

Sega's actions are just the latest in a string of legal challenges to
Web sites that host tools and discussions of techniques for
circumventing copyright protections and allegedly facilitating piracy.

The most prominent case focusing on the issue is the record industry's
ongoing effort to shut down music file-swapping firm Napster. That
company's software provides a directory of songs hosted by individuals
and helps facilitate direct connections between individuals, instead
of copying songs itself. But that's enough to make it liable for
contributory infringement, the music labels argue.

Copyright infringement law was pushed to its limits in another recent
case, in which 2600 Enterprises publisher Eric Corley was held to be
contributing to copyright infringement for posting--and even linking
to--the DeCSS software code that helps computer users to copy
protected DVDs. That's one of several recent cases that have held that
linking itself could be deemed copyright infringement, but that idea
has yet to be upheld by any appeals court, attorneys say.


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