<nettime> FC: NY judge grants MPAA injunction against 2600.com; EFF loses

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com (by way of Paul Garrin)>]

MPAA and its member companies are stepping up their attack on the DeCSS
program -- something that is, to say the least, futile given the nature of
the Net. Demand letters for even *linking* to the program are going out
(watch out, news sites!):

   http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/css/demand.txt

MPAA won a victory in New York City today:
   http://www.mpaa.org/Press/mpaawin2.htm

2600 will be required to remove the DeCSS files, as will the other defendants:
   http://www.2600.com/news/1999/1112-files/

What happens next is everyone else in the universe mirrors DeCSS...

-Declan

******

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 20:14:40 -0500
To: declan@well.com
From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com
Subject: NY Court Grants MPAA Preliminary Injunction

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan today granted a preliminary
injunction against three defendants sued by the Motion
Picture Association of American for offering the DeCSS
DVD descrambling program on the Internet.

At a three-hour preliminary hearing today in the Southern
District of New York, arguments were presented for MPAA
by its counsel, Proskauer Rose, and for the defendants,
Shawn Reimerdes, Roman Kazan, and Edwin Corley a/k/a
Emmanuel Goldstein, by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
and Attorney Katz. EFF's attorneys, Robing Gross and Allon
Levy, participated from its California offices by way of
teleconference.

Judge Kaplan rejected every argument, point by point,
made by the defendants and firmly endorsed, point by
point, the claims of MPAA made under provisions of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for protecting
intellectual property.

A clear link with made by this federal case with the California
case by the plaintiffs and Judge Kaplan. MPAA counsel
argued that the suit was reluctantly filed in response to
widespread, global posting of DeCSS in response to
the California suit. The judge agreed that this backlash
warranted a preliminary injunction to prevent "irreparable
harm" to the copyright holders, among other justifications
which he elaborated in a lengthy statement on the case,
its opposing arguments and law governing copyright
and the First Amendment.

Judge Kaplan will issue a final written version of his
statment and order early next week. Upon completion
of his verbal statement he signed and presented to
counsel his order for the preliminary injunction.

Defendants Reimerdes and Kazan were present during
the hearing, Corely was not.

Judge Kaplan offered a speedy trial for the suit, "as
early as next Tuesday if you want it," he said to MPAA
counsel. "I would like this tried as soon as possible.
I offer you a runaway train if that's what you want. My
schedule is clear for this."

Defendants' counsel requested a delay and the judge
agreed to accept an application for an alternate date.

During the hearing it became clear which way the judge
would rule. He repeatedly urged defense attorneys to
get on with their argument, hectored them and lectured
them on the law. He had earlier refused an adjournment
in the hearing to allow the defense more time to prepare
responses to the suit.

Defense papers of Roman Kazan apparently were not properly
submitted to the court in time to be considered. Judge Kaplan
refused to allow late submission and dismissed  the need for
more time, saying, "these rapid schedules are customary in
preliminary injunction cases, there was plenty of time to
respond. I am obliged to rule on what the court has."

Judge Kaplan stated there was a clear intent to break the law
as indicated by vulgar remarks on Reimerdes' Web site. For
emphasis on this point he repeated them as if with distaste
on three occasions during the hearing: "the DVD CAA
lawyers are cocksuckers."

There was a single reporter was at the hearing in Judge Kaplan's
chambers, Jeff Howe with the Village Voice, two observers from
Cryptome, and the MPAA public relations representative, Ken

Frydman, who distributed a pre-prepared victory statement from
Jack Valenti, President and CEO of MPAA:

"Judge Kaplan's ruling represents a great victory for creative artists
and consumers everywhere. I think this serves as a wake-up call
to anyone who contemplates stealing intellectual property."

Cryptome asked Judge Kaplan after the hearing if he would answer
questions. He said he does not speak to the press. We couldn't
explain that's not us.

We asked chief attorney for MPAA, Jon Baumgarten of Proskauer
Rose, for comments. He said no, statements will have to come
from MPAA public relations and that he would be briefing that
office shortly.

We spoke with Shawn Reimerdes and Roman Kazan about their
views of the hearing. What they said is what Jeff Howe will tell
in another forum, tomorrow I believe.




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