Digital Rights Management Cases

Claire Stewart

MM450

April 27, 2006

Review of DMCA

New anti-circumvention language introduced:– Prohibits manufacture, trafficking, use of

technologies that circumvent access protection– Prohibits manufacture, trafficking of

technologies that circumvent copy protection

Gary Shapiro, President of the Consumer Electronics Association

excerpt from Shapiro’s testimony (1:55)

http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/05122004hearing1265/hearing.htm

The following statement was read by Prof. Edward W. Felten at the Fourth International Information Hiding Workshop, in Pittsburgh, on April 26, 2001:

“…the Recording Industry Association of America, the SDMI Foundation, and the Verance Corporation threatened to bring a lawsuit if we proceeded with our presentation or the publication of our paper. Threats were made against the authors, against the conference organizers, and against their respective employers.

Litigation is costly, time-consuming, and uncertain, regardless of the merits of the other side's case. Ultimately we, the authors, reached a collective decision not to expose ourselves, our employers, and the conference organizers to litigation at this time…”

Papers that were presented included:

An Analysis of One of the SDMI Candidates Julien Boeuf and Julien P. Stern

Computational Forensic Techniques for Intellectual Property Protection Jennifer L. Wong, Darko Kirovski, Miodrag Potkonjak

Intellectual Property Metering Farinaz Koushanfar, Gang Qu, Miodrag Potkonjak

COiN-Video: A Model for the Dissemination of Copyrighted Video Streams over Open Networks Dimitris Thanos

Felten v RIAA

• Filed in June 2001, Felten sought declaratory relief from DoJ, RIAA, SDMI, and Verance suits/prosecution, claiming First Amendment freedoms

• Were unable to produce evidence that the threatened legal action was likely

• Quoting Dorothy Parker (“there is no there there”), the judge dismissed the case in December 2001 “The Courts of the United States are quite busy handling real, rather than theoretical cases, between true adversaries with an adequately developed factual record.”

Sony rootkit

“Edward Felten, a professor of computer science at Princeton University, said Friday that he and graduate student J. Alex Halderman uncovered the Sony problem a month before the news about it broke in November--but feared a lawsuit under Section 1201 of the DMCA if they disclosed it without the record label's authorization.”-http://news.com.com/Seeking+changes+to+the+DMCA/2100-7348_3-6056616.html?tag=nefd.lede

Felten’s article on AACS(next generation DVD

encryption) • Question: what does Felten claim is the

central flaw in the AACS technology?

• Bonus question: who developed the AACS technology?

Should a garage door opener be protected by the DMCA?

Chamberlain’s “rolling code” patent design

Judge Pallmeyer

(Bonus question: what other high-profile case was recently before Judge Pallmeyer?)

Two key DMCA issues

• Skylink does not have to prove authorization, Chamberlain must prove that unauthorized circumvention occurred

• Did Skylink act without the authority of the copyright holder?

Recap of DeCSS cases

• Bunner case: went to California Supreme Court, ruled cannot restrain publication of computer programs (Trade Secrets vs. Free Speech)

• Pavlovich case: went to California Supreme Court, ruled lack of jurisdiction (Pavlovich was from Texas)

Broadcast flag

vs.

Broadcast flag

• Question: what is the Broadcast flag?

• Question: what was the crux of the library associations’ objection to the flag?

• Question: what did the judge decide?

What will happen next?

Early Senate draft, not yet introduced