LOS ANGELES–The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in California last Friday reversed a 1999 injunction against California resident Andrew Bunner that had prohibited him from posting DVD decryption codes on the Internet.
On Friday, the court ruled that the DVD Copy Control Association, which brought the charges against Bunner, failed to show that content scrambling system decryption codes were trade secrets.
The decision follows two previous court wins by individuals who posted DeCSS codes online. In December, the acquittal of Norwegian youth Jon Johansen was upheld in Norway.
And in Jan. 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a stay on a California Supreme Court ruling that had barred the entertainment industry from suing Matthew Pavlovich, a Texan who posted DeCSS online, because it fell outside of California’s jurisdiction.
The DVD CCA filed a voluntary dismissal of its case against Bunner in January, claiming that that it sought to change its legal strategy in fighting against piracy.
In February, the Morgan Hill, Calif.-based DVD CCA sued software company 321, saying it was focusing its anti-piracy fight against broadly distributed products such as 321’s “DVD X Copy” software.
On Feb. 20, 321 was ordered to stop distributing products that featured a “ripper” feature after it was determined that the product violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
