[dvd-discuss] More on the decision not to appeal the Felten case

[Seth David Schoen <schoen(at)eff.org>]

----- Forwarded message from Cindy Cohn <Cindy@eff.org> -----

We did not drop the Felten case, of course, the decision was made by the 
clients, but we support them in it.  Obviously we believe that all 
researchers should be protected, not just those at big institutions.

We felt that the government's unequivocal statement that the DMCA did not 
reach "attempting to study access control technology" was very broad--broad 
enough to reach all researchers.   (See footnote 5, government's motion to 
dismiss) Of course we would have preferred an enforceable court decision to 
that effect, but it seems that both the government's statement and the 
RIAA's statements along the same lines meant that the Felten case wasn't 
going to be the best vehicle to ensure that protection, since we would have 
had to spend at least a year more fighting about even whether we could have 
a live case before we even got to the bigger questions.

While we want to be able to pick the fact situations and clients who carry 
this flag, and not leave that to the content holders, we may not have that 
luxury.  Or perhaps once a sufficent number of these threats occur with the 
content holders backing down only after lawsuits are filed, the courts will 
see that this is a broader issue that they should address.

Either way, it's not like we're going away.  We filed an amicus brief about 
1201 in the Elcomsoft case on Monday and have been working with several 
other folks who face DMCA uncertainties.  And of course we will be closely 
watching the situation and if the government or content holders try to 
interfere with legitimate research again, we'll be there.

Cindy

************************************************
Cindy A. Cohn                   Cindy@eff.org
Legal Director                    www.eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel:  (415)436-9333 x 108
Fax: (415) 436-9993

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Seth Schoen
Staff Technologist                                schoen@eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation                    http://www.eff.org/
454 Shotwell Street, San Francisco, CA  94110     1 415 436 9333 x107