Public Booted from DVD Copying Trial Over ‘Secret’ CSS Code

SAN FRANCISCO — Whether the public has a right to make a “fair use” copy of DVDs is on trial in a San Francisco federal court. Yet the public may never know whether the verdict was reached fairly because the presiding judge removed the press just as the nuts and bolts of the case was to be aired out.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel’s contempt for the media is widely known by the San Francisco tech press. Patel, a Carter appointee, presided over the Napster trial in one of the smallest courtrooms in the San Francisco federal building – despite unsuccessful press pleas that the high-profile case be moved to a substantially larger courtroom that perpetually sits vacant. Hence, many reporters were excluded for lack of space.

Awesome. Something that will effect virtually everyone, and we'll never know whether or not the decision came about fairly!

I'm so sick of this stupidity and greed from the recording industry and their government whores.

www.wired.com...

[edit on 27-4-2009 by sadisticwoman]

The RIAA will take it's pathological infatuation with the non-disclosure agreement and trade secrets to any length and use it for any excuse. What a travesty.

Much like this, most things under NDA aren't actually worth a hill of beans regarding knowledge. I have some experience, having seen the kind of nonsense companies like to keep secret with IC chips.

css_descramble.c

[edit on 4/27/2009 by EnlightenUp]

Last pathetic gasp of the scumbag recording industry scumbags. The www. and mp3 has them in a chokehold and they are soon to be obsolete.

Originally posted by whaaa
Last pathetic gasp of the scumbag recording industry scumbags. The www. and mp3 has them in a chokehold and they are soon to be obsolete.

So long as they wish to work against the long-term trends rather than with them, I guess they will die off. Such thinking belongs in another era.