Court Rejects Ban on DVD Copying Code

In a closely watched case concerning a DVD-cracking tool that has been distributed over the Internet, a California appeals court has reversed a 4-year-old order banning the publication of the computer code that can be used to copy DVDs. California's Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 1999 injunction favoring the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA), which had filed a lawsuit against California resident Andrew Bunner, accusing him of violating its intellectual property rights by posting DeCSS (De-Content Scrambling System) software on his Web site.

In a decision issued by a three-judge panel, the court ruled that "the preliminary injunction ... burdens more speech than necessary to protect DVD CCA's property interest and was an unlawful prior restraint upon Bunner's right to free speech."

Last month, the DVD CCA, representing motion picture and consumer electronics companies, had asked the California Superior Court to dismiss its lawsuit, but Bunner opposed such a move. The court denied the motion for dismissal as it felt that the appeal presented "important issues that could arise again and yet evade review," the three-judge panel wrote in its decision.

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