Hollywood drops DVD lawsuit
PrintDecryption code is not a trade secret anymore - Official
Posted in Music and Media, 23rd January 2004 02:32 GMT
Free whitepaper – Dell/EMC CX4 and Dell PowerEdge blades
Hollywood has abandoned its attempt to stifle publication of DVD decryption code, by dropping its lawsuit against a Californian publisher. The DVD CCA (Copy Control Association) filed a trade secrets lawsuit against Andrew Bunner (and others) for disclosing details of the DeCSS, which circumvents the CSS encryption scheme used on DVD discs.
Three years to day after the courts issued a preliminary injunction against Bunner et al, the DVD CCA yesterday filed a motion to dismiss its case, noting that "this court should not be reviewing this case on the basis of a less than fully developed record." It had become impossible to argue that Bunner was publishing a trade secret: CSS simply wasn't a secret any more.
You can read the final ruling here [PDF, 1MB]. John Gilmore's lucid testimony giving background to the case can be found here.
The Norwegian programmer who published DeCSS was acquitted on retrial earlier this month.
Related Stories
California Supremes issue DVD crack setback
California Supremes hear DeCSS case
DeCSS temporarily banned from the Net
US inspired copyright laws set to sweep the globe – for fun and profit
Norway throws in the towel in DVD Jon case
iTunes DRM cracked wide open for GNU/Linux. Seriously
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Enabling the Agile Data Center
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter