The DVD CCA is a not-for-profit corporation with responsibility for licensing CSS (Content Scramble System) to manufacturers of DVD hardware, discs and related products. On 1st November, the DVD CCA lost a case in California’s Court of Appeal over the posting on a web site of the source code for DeCSS, a program that decrypts CSS-protected discs, enabling copying and distribution of DVD movies. The court ruled that an injunction against Andrew Bunner and others was in breach of their Constitutional rights to freedom of speech. It said that DeCSS is “pure speech”.
The DVD CCA is now arguing that the decision is inconsistent with a separate ruling of last week in which a New York district court upheld a ruling against Eric Corley, publisher of hacker magazine 2600, that forbids him posting or linking to the controversial DeCSS. The appeal to the Supreme Court also argues that the Court of Appeal erred in failing to protect trade secrets from unlawful dissemination.