Court Rejects MPAA's Attempt to Disqualify DeCSS Lawyers
May 21-27, 2000
On Monday, May 22, 2000 Judge Lewis Kaplan issued an order refusing Time Warner's request to disqualify EFF's lead litigation firm Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein, & Selz from representing defendant 2600 Magazine. Time Warner claimed that the firm had a conflict of interest since it briefly represented a co-plaintiff, Scholastic, in a declaratory judgment suit against Stouffer over book publishing.
In denying the request, Judge Kaplan stated, "Time Warner failed to establish any material risk that it would be prejudiced inappropriately by allowing the Frankfurt firm to continue in this litigation."
"There is substantial reason to believe that the motion to disqualify the Frankfurt firm is motivated at least partly by tactical considerations," stated Judge Kaplan who noted that the defendant would be prejudiced in preparing for this "important trial" on July 17.
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Studios Seek to Deny Public Access to DVD Trial
Movie studios asked the court to deny the press access to legal
proceedings
in the NY DVD litigation on May 24, 2000. After receiving several
media requests to attend the court depositions of plaintiffs including
MPAA President Jack Valenti and Disney CEO Michael Eisner, the studios
asked the court to
deny the press access to the proceedings. Judge Kaplan requested
all media wishing to attend the depositions submit papers to him by June
2nd and scheduled a June 6th hearing for argument on the matter.
The movie studios have refused to grant the public access to any of the discovery documents produced in this litigation. Their lawyers have designated all the deposition transcripts of MPAA officials as "confidential" and have asked the court to grant a protective order denying the public access to the statements. Among the deposition statements it seeks to hide, MPAA admits it has found no evidence of piracy related to DeCSS. Despite frequent public statements to the media on the DVD cases, the studios now seek to shroud themselves in a cloak of secrecy.
Related Docs:
http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-poa.htm
EFF Archive:
http://www.eff.org/pub/IP/MPAA_DVD_cases/
