Judge refuses DVD biz' DeCSS ban request

DVD industry attempts to block the distribution of DeCSS at least until 14 January 2000, the controversial DVD file decryption software, failed yesterday. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Efving threw out a request for a temporary order to force 72 Web sites to cease offering the software for download. The request was made on Monday by the DVD Copy Control Association (DCCA) on behalf of the movie industry, hardware manufacturers and technology licensing bodies like itself. Efving did not give his reasons for refusing the DCCA request. ®