[dvd-announce] Kaplan Enjoins 2600 from Posting and Linking

[Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com>]

Not unexpectedly, Judge Kaplan has ruled against 2600.

Impressions from an initial skim of the decision:
Kaplan gives short shrift to the expressive content of computer code, 
finding the anticircumvention provisions of 1201 to be a valid 
content-neutral restriction on speech.  He invokes an odd "disease" 
metaphor for the propagation of decryption tools, to find 1201 necessary to 
the important governmental interest of protecting copyright.

Kaplan further enjoins linking to DeCSS by pulling hyperlinking within the 
1201 prohibition on "offering" circumvention technologies. He appears 
relatively unconcerned with the restrictions on speech a hyperlinking ban 
entails.

The opinion <http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/00-08117.PDF>
Final judgment and order 
<http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/00-08118.PDF>

(Mirrored at <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/NY/opinion.pdf> and 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/NY/finaljudgment.pdf>)

By this evening, I hope to have a line-numbered text version of the opinion 
posted to facilitate discussion.
As always, background documents are at 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/>.

On to the appeal.
--Wendy

Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
Openlaw - DVD: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/