A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld an order that prohibits publishing or linking to DVD-cracking code--a decision with sweeping significance for free speech rights and copyright protection on the Internet.
The decision for now upholds a controversial law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and prevents Web site 2600 and its publisher, Eric Corley, from posting links to computer code known as DeCSS--a program that allows DVD movies to be decoded and played on personal computers.
Joining a growing consensus among courts across the country, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York found that computer code is speech and therefore entitled to some First Amendment protections under the U.S. Constitution. But the court concluded that the material in this case is "content-neutral," and therefore entitled to considerably less protection than "expressive" content such as poetry or a novel.
While Wednesday's ruling is a clear win for the motion picture industry, the case has created some conflicting legal decisions.
In a related case winding its way through the California courts, a state appeals court earlier this month overturned an order that barred hundreds of people from publishing DeCSS online. Posting the code is like publishing other types of controversial speech and is protected by the constitution, the appellate judges said.
News source: CNet News
