First Amendment lawyers take on DVD cracking case

Cnet is reporting on legal moves in the DeCSS battle.

\”Free speech lawyers have appealed a preliminary injunction granted against
72 Web site operators accused of stealing trade secrets by circulating a
program online that lets people crack the security on DVDs.


The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
submitted its appeal this week following the January order issued by a
Santa Clara County Superior Court judge in California.

Cnet is reporting on legal moves in the DeCSS battle.

\”Free speech lawyers have appealed a preliminary injunction granted against
72 Web site operators accused of stealing trade secrets by circulating a
program online that lets people crack the security on DVDs.


The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
submitted its appeal this week following the January order issued by a
Santa Clara County Superior Court judge in California.

\”The battleground over the First Amendment is now in cyberspace,\” Jim
Wheaton, senior counsel for nonprofit, public-interest law firm the First Amendment Project, said in a
statement. \”Old media is lumbering into the new era and wants to knock down
our civil liberties in a clumsy attempt to maintain the old paradigm.\”

Wheaton is assisting the EFF in defending the collection of Web publishers
named in the case.

A group representing the movie industry, called the DVD Copy Control
Association, filed its lawsuit
in late December after a 16-year-old Norwegian student posted on the
Internet a program that defeats the security software on DVD-formatted movies.