Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : LASERPACIFIC (lpac) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Fortune III who wrote (449)	6/22/2001 8:55:20 PM
From: NRugg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542

It is very likely that if the Screen Actors Guild settles with the film industry by the end of June, that the result will be an increase in the price of LPAC stock, for it will remove a big uncertainty. Uncertainty is always bad for stock price. Their contract expires on June 30. So we should know this month. There is one other event that might occur in June, which can remove uncertainty, the handing down of a decision by the appellate court in the DeCSS case. This went in about May 1. While this may not be enough time for the 3 judges to make up their minds, judges traditionally try to take the summer off, and start their vacations on July 1. I am not a legal scholar, so the following is just IMHO. I will make a brief layman's summary . DeCSS is software which allows one to make copies of DVD's. A web magazine called 2600 has posted the software (which was originated by a Norwegian boy, and was intended to play DVD's on a Linux based machine as I have heard). The Motion Picture Association of America sued 2600 claiming that this posting was intended to allow violation of their copyrights and was in violation of the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to tamper with copy protection. Various legal scholars weighed in on the side of 2600. Their basic claim is that this posting is constitutionally protected free speech. Kathleen Sullivan, dean of the Stanford Law School is representing the magazine and its owner, Corley , pro bono, and many others have defended his actions . The software program is rather small, and some ingenuous people have reposted it in various forms, including one as a haiku. The trial judge found in favor of the MPAA. It is generally thought that losing this case would cost the MPAA a lot of money. I have my own opinion, for what it is worth. Many years ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled on a free speech case. "No man may cry "Fire" in a crowded theater." he said. What Corley is doing is not crying fire, but he is saying "Free DVDs in the lobby" in a sense. I think that the MPAA will win in the appellate court. Too much money is involved. Norman