See related files:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video (EFF Archive)
http://jya.com/cryptout.htm#DVD-DeCSS
(Cryptome Archive)
http://www.2600.com/dvd/docs (2600 Archive)
http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/dvd/
(Harvard DVD OpenLaw Project)
EFF DVD Update: July 19, 2000
Universal City Studios v. 2600 Magazine
Time Warner Claims Individuals Not 'Authorized' to View DVD at Purchase
Wednesday morning in the New York DVD trial began with continued examination of Marsha King, a VP in Time-Warner. She explained how terribly hurt the studios were by the mere loss of confidence in CSS, let alone the millions of dollars they could also potentially lose from illicit copying. She described her participation in creating the DVD format, deciding on security standards for it, and negotiating with the consumer electronics and computer industries on a common position (which was enshrined in the CSS and the CSS license agreements).
Interestingly, Judge Kaplan refused to allow questioning in any area related to when and whether buyers of Warner DVDs receive the "authority of the copyright holder", which is a critical element of whether the buyer is circumventing when they play a DVD. The judge thought it was obvious, and eventually facetiously asked Ms. King whether Time-Warner authorized buyers to play their DVDs on players which have never signed a DVDCCA license, to which she said "No". But this begged the question of exactly how a consumer knows what authority they have been granted, where that authority is defined by a company, whether the company can change its mind later or for specific consumers, whether this authority is general or can have limitations such as "you are authorized to play this Sony movie only on Sony's DVD players", etc. It is our position that the authority to play a DVD is granted to the buyer at the time of purchase, without limitation. Any other reading of the statute produces chaos in the market, since after selling a single copy of a technically-protected work, any copyright owner would have the legal right to decide what players are permitted to exist in the entire market (by withdrawing their authority for some drives to play their work, and then suing drive distributors, as Time Warner sued 2600, to ban them as unauthorized circumventers).
Prof. Franklin Fisher testified after lunch about the economics of markets when "free" (zero-price) goods are introduced into them. While his analysis was slightly interesting, it was all hypothetical, and was not based on any actual investigation into consumer or company behavior in the movie or DVD markets. Judge Kaplan cynically described it as the prosecuting hiring a distinguished chemistry professor to explain that when you put an icepick into a tire, the air comes out. The judge said he had already figured that out. [My own experience in running Cygnus Solutions, a successful free-software support company, indicates that what actually happens when you toss zero-price intellectual property into a market is much more interesting (and financially rewarding) than merely having the market all leak away, leaving no market. But it's clearly obvious what would happen, to many people who've never tried it; they're just wrong.]
Thursday will begin with a defense witness, teenage Norwegian DeCSS programmer Jon Johansen at 9AM (out of order since he is leaving early). Jon will be followed by plaintiff witnesses Mikhail Reider of the MPAA anti-piracy unit, and then Bruce Boyden, who visited web sites such as 2600 to find copies of DeCSS on them. These are the final plaintiffs' witnesses. When they are finished (possibly on Friday), the defense will begin calling its witnesses, beginning with Ed Felton, who used DeCSS in teaching students of applied cryptography what can be learned by studying failed encryption systems. Then Emmanuel Goldstein, the defendant, publisher of 2600 magazine and long-time radio journalist will testify on his own behalf. We hope to see you there!
From: John Gilmore
An index of the DVD updates can be found at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/dvd_updates_archive.html
EFF's archive of MPAA v 2600 litigation: http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/
