The movie industry has to be reeling (no pun intended) after this Supreme Court decision. According to a report from Reuters , the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an emergency stay on a case involving DVD descrambling Jan. 3. "The Supreme Court wisely recognized that there is no need for an emergency stay to prevent Mr. Pavlovich from publishing DeCSS," says Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The high court affirmed a decision of the California Supreme Court, which had ruled that the entertainment industry could not force a Texas resident who had published DVD descrambling software on the Internet to stand trial in California.
This means that the defendant, Matthew Pavlovich, who posted the software called DeCSS, is able to distribute the program online.
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To the high court, it is a question of geography: The court says Pavlovich cannot be sued in California because he is a Texas resident who does not have "substantial ties" to the Golden State. Pavlovich's legal woes began in 1999, when a group of film studios and consumer electronics makers sued hundreds of people, including Pavlovich, for distributing DeCSS online, citing a violation of California trade secret laws. A state judge ruled for the plaintiffs and granted an injunction. Three years later, the California Supreme Court ruled that Pavlovich could not be sued for violating state trade secrets simply because he knew that his actions could hurt the state's film industry. In the latest ruling, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor lifted the injunction, saying there was no need to keep DeCSS a secret. |
This is yet another step in the right direction for those of us that want to be able to protect our investments and value our right to use things we buy and own as we see fit. It also has to be seen as a giant legal win for the "little guy" fighting the machine of a multi-billion dollar industry.
Source: Reuters
