“Although movie studios embroiled in a lawsuit against a
“hacker” publication say rogue software that can unscramble
copyright-protected DVDs will lead to Napster-like swapping of
movies on the Internet, lawyers for 2600 magazine point out
that the industry has yet to track down a single individual who has
used the software to make a film available on the
Internet.“
“Instead, the motion picture industry is targeting Web sites
such as 2600’s which have made the DVD-cracking software itself
available online, and this week brought experts into a New York
court to show that the technology makes widespread theft of movies
a possibility.”
“The trial portion of the lawsuit by the major Hollywood studios
against 2600 and its publisher, Eric Corley – who has adopted the
name Emmanuel Goldstein after the character in George Orwell’s
novel “1984” – began Monday and could continue for weeks.”
“The case – which parallels a similar action against more than
50 Web site operators in California – centers on the promotion of a
utility known as DeCSS, capable of decrypting the DVD industry’s
Content Scrambling System (CSS). The studios say making available
tools that can crack DVD information contravenes the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998.”