State Appeals Court Rules
DVD Decoding Software Is Free Speech
A California State Appeals Court overturned on First Amendment grounds a ruling that bars the posting on the Web of a software program, DeCSS, that can crack the computer code protecting copyrighted DVDs. The three-judge panel ruled November 1 that “although the social value of DeCSS may be questionable, it is nonetheless pure speech” and is protected by the constitution, the CNet online news service reported November 1.
The plaintiff, the Motion Picture Association of America, has another case on the same matter pending in federal court. In that case, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan prohibited the online hacker publication 2600 from publishing DeCSS, which allows DVD movies to be decoded and played on personal computers, calling the claim that computer code is protected by the First Amendment “baseless.” Kaplan’s ruling also barred Web sites from linking to the program.
The American Library Association joined the effort to overturn Kaplan’s ruling when the American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in January on behalf of ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, and other groups.
Posted November 5, 2001.
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