"...until better encryption technologies are developed"
------------------------------------------------------------
Filed at 9:29 p.m. EST
By The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A judge on Wednesday denied an electronics industry group's bid to temporarily halt distribution of software that removes security encryption from DVD videos.
The DVD Copy Control Association is suing to prevent 72 Web site programmers from making the software available on the Internet. Without comment, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Elfving denied the group's request for a restraining order.
The software, called DeCSS, allows users to unlock the security code on DVDs and copy movies to personal computers that don't have the DVD's decryption keys.
The association alleges that distributing either the software or the codes is an unauthorized use of the group's trade secrets. But many site programmers who posted the program said they were simply providing software to play DVDs on computers with Linux operating systems.
``People have a legal right to play the materials that they've already purchased in a different format,' said Tara Lemmey, president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that seeks to protect civil liberties and free speech on the Internet.
The lawsuit, however, says protecting the DVD encryption technology is critical to the future of DVDs.
``Without such copy protection, the motion picture companies would not have allowed their copyrighted motion pictures to be available in this new digital video format,' the lawsuit says.
The case is scheduled to go to court Jan. 14.
Courts have repeatedly found that consumers can make personal copies of material they have purchased, such as copying a music compact disc onto a cassette tape. But judges have yet to weigh in on newer technologies, such as DVDs, which offer higher quality sound and video than videocassettes.
Ron Coolley, a Chicago-based intellectual property lawyer, said that even if the DVD Copy Control Association succeeds in shutting down the Web sites providing DeCSS, the code has been revealed and would likely flourish until better encryption technologies are developed.
``It's an example of technology running past the law. There are legal means of stopping this or trying to slow it down, but unfortunately the Internet moves at the speed of light,' Coolley said.
The primary worry by industry officials is that, once copied, the video will be freely distributed over the Internet.
Similar concerns have been raised by the music industry, which has been striving to combat widespread music piracy as increasingly available technology makes it easy to spread high-quality digital music files in formats such as MP3.
Earlier this month, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. decided to delay production of DVD audio/video players from its Panasonic and JVC subsidiaries by six months because of the DeCSS program, despite strong advance sales.
The industry organization DVD Video Group projects nearly 4 million homes will have installed such players by year's end.
nytimes.com
|
