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Court Upholds DVD Copy Protection

Judge orders Web sites to remove code that cracks DVD encryption.

By Jack McCarthy, IDG News   

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction requested by the MPAA members, to force three men to remove Internet postings that give the code for cracking DVD encryption.

The industry group demanded that the three New York-based defendants remove the formula or face contempt-of-court charges. The MPAA says the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 prohibits unauthorized use of such copyrighted materials.

"Judge Kaplan's ruling represents a great victory for creative artists, consumers, and copyright owners everywhere," says Jack Valenti, MPAA president and chief executive officer.

Plaintiffs in the action include Universal Studios, Paramount, MGM, Tri-Star, Columbia, Time Warner Entertainment, Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox.

The ruling is the latest action in the MPAA's attempt to keep its DVD videos protected from free access by the public. In recent months, the organization has issued hundreds of cease-and-desist letters to Web site operators, telling them to stop posting the software.

"We feel that they are violating the law," says Phuong Yokitis, an MPAA spokesperson.

Theft or Free Speech?

A civil liberties group criticized the ruling, saying the posting of the software is protected by free speech entitlement.

"These cases are not about piracy or hacking," says Tara Lemmey, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "They are about censorship of free speech critical to science, education, and innovation."

The EFF provides free legal representation to the defendants in the New York case and in a similar case in California. The group says the judge's decision could hamper the development of Linux and other open-source initiatives based on software that can be accessed and altered by the public.

The de-encryption formula, called DeCSS, was first posted on the Internet in October 1998. It can de-encrypt movies or DVDs normally scrambled by encryption code called a content scrambling system.