California Supreme Court overturns Free Speech rights

[Mazer]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/957175.asp?vts=82520031755

But judges said that for now, property rights outranked free speech rights in this case, because DVD copy-protection technology was never meant to be public. Nor did the DeCSS code itself contribute significantly to a debate over whether DVDs should be encrypted at all, the judges said.

“Disclosure of this highly technical information adds nothing to the public debate over the use of encryption software or the DVD industry’s efforts to limit unauthorized copying of movies on DVDs,” the court wrote. “We do not see how any speech addressing a matter of public concern is inextricably intertwined with and somehow necessitates disclosure of DVD CCA’s trade secrets."

I could argue the points of fact that were overlooked in this decision for hours and not get anywhere. The fact is that intellectual property, which is not mentioned in the Consitution, is being held in importance above Freedom of Speech, which is (supposed to be) protected by the Bill of Rights.

In this case trade secrets weren't even being revealed, only circumvented. If a piece of software were available to allow anyone to add CSS protection to their own DVD's then that would constitute disclosure of trade secrets (that is if anyone wanted to use CSS, which is doubtful). Why CSS needs to be kept secret is beyond me, since DVD CCA is the only company allowed to sell DVD encryption technology. It's not like they've lost a lot of business since DeCSS was released.

It just kills me that laws that have nothing to do with copyright are being used to to fill in the gaps in the DMCA. The laws that protect the movies themselves cannot be enforced so the industry is (ab)using the laws that protect the technology that protects the movies.