DVD Copying Software Defendant Gets Supported in Calif. Fight
Posted by configure on 28 April 2002 - 09:19 · 3 comments & 83 views
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In its brief, the CCIA said a California appeals court erred when it ruled the state has jurisdiction over Matthew Pavlovich and ordered him to stand trial in California.
Pavlovich, an open-source developer who played a role in the creation of DVD-playing software for Linux known as LiViD, is one of a number of defendants targeted in a lawsuit filed by the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA). Pavlovich, who was a student at Purdue University in Indiana at the time of the filing of the complaint and now resides in Texas, claimed to have no contacts in California and argued that the state has no jurisdiction over him.
Pavlovich owned and operated a Web site where he posted a program called DeCSS. The appeals court described DeCSS as a computer program designed to "defeat" the DVD CCA's encryption-based copy protection system, known as the Content Scramble System, or CSS, which is "employed to encrypt and protect the copyrighted motion pictures contained on digital versatile discs, or DVDs."
The CCIA agreed with Pavlovich's contention that he had no commercial contacts in California. It said the state did not have jurisdiction over him because, it argued, the "mere posting" of information on the Internet is "not sufficient" to create jurisdiction.
The organization went on to say the court of appeal "erroneously expanded the scope of personal jurisdiction beyond the limits of the due process clause." The CCIA disagreed with the court's finding that Pavlovich knew, or should have known, "that by posting the misappropriated information on the Internet, he was making the information available to a wide range of Internet users and consumers throughout the Internet world, including users and consumers in California."
"If allowed to stand, this decision would create universal jurisdiction in California for any person or company that publishes a Web site on the Internet," CCIA president and CEO Ed Black said in a written statement.
"If followed in other states or in other countries, this would subject every Web site owner to the jurisdiction of virtually every court in the world," Black added. "Clearly, this shatters established concepts of jurisdiction and must not be allowed to stand."
In its Aug. 7, 2001, ruling, the court of appeal agreed with the DVD CCA's contention that Pavlovich knew that the motion picture industry was centered in California, and the computer technology industry has a dominant presence in the state. In addition, he admitted knowing that pirating DVDs is illegal, and that DeCSS facilitates pirating of DVDs.
Based on these findings, the court ruled Pavlovich, "knew, or should have known, that the DVD republishing and distribution activities he was illegally doing and allowing to be done through the use of this Web site, while benefiting him, were injuriously affecting the motion picture and computer industries in California. The question is whether Pavlovich's lack of physical and personal presence in California incapacitates California courts from jurisdictionally reaching him through its long-arm statutes. We hold it does not."
Attorneys for the DVD CCA said they did not have a comment on the CCIA's brief.
Allonn Levy, Pavlovich's attorney, said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also filed an Amicus Curiae brief on his client's behalf.