“Open Source community members breathed a sigh of relief at 4:50
PST today, as Santa Clara Judge William J. Elfving rejected DVD
Copy Control Association, Inc.’s request for a restraining
order….”
“The courtroom opened up, we all filed in. we had about 50
people in there, two reporters inside, two waiting outside. [The
Plaintiffs are] claiming it’s a trade secret thing. They’re
claiming that to get the Z-key, they had to click on a license
agreement. There’s no reason why that’s true. They inserted their
arguments and they said that the hacker in Norway had to use the
player, sign the agreement, and therefore it’s an illegal thing.
There’s a law on the books in California that says if you publish a
trade secret that is known to be stolen, or could only become
available through theft, you have an obligation not to continue
with the distribution of the trade secret….”
“The expression on the judge’s face looked rather
enlightened when the point was made that you don’t need the
encryption key in order to make illegal copies of movies or DVD
discs.“