Re: 17 USC 1201 (circumvention) cases?

On Mon, Jan 17, 2000, John Muller <jmuller[_at_]brobeck.com> wrote:
>
> On 1/16/00, Karsten M. Self <kmself[_at_]ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know of cases or appeals involving violations of 17 USC 1201
> > copy protection circumvention. The law is relatively new, and the grace
> > period for circumvention actions has only recently expired.
> >
> > My current interest are the MPAA DVD/DeCSS case(s).
> >
> > I'm aware of cases involving Sony v. Connectix, and RealNetworks v.
> > MP3.com (I think). The RealNetworks action appears to have been
> > dropped. What's the status of the Connectix case? Last action I'd
> > heard of was for a Sept 14, 1999 court date.
> >
> > There's also the Sony v. Bleem case.
> >
> > Nintendo has pursued actions of similar nature.
>
> Karsten: I think the RealNetworks case you're referring to is
> RealNetworks v. StreamWorks, in which Real obtained a temporary
> restraining order. See http://www.streambox.com/RNvsSB/index.htm and
> http://www.realnetworks.com/company/pressroom/pr/99/streambox_injunction.html

Thanks. The RealNetworks TRO against Streambox was repealled yesterday. The Streambox case page you cite below has details.

The dynamics of this case were explored by The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/), an irreverent and generally quite intelligent IT industry site. RealNetworks appears to be running into a wall in that alternative streaming audio formats from Apple and Microsoft are more freely available (authoring and serving technology is freely licensed), chipping away at RN's "standard bearer" status in the field.

    Search "Streambox"
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/cgi-bin/SearchArticles.pl?search=Streambox

    RealNetworks cuts big deals as market share shrinks     http://www.theregister.co.uk/000108-000001.html

    Streambox converts RealAudio to MP3
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/991112-000007.html

Economic and technological effects appear to limit legal recourse in this particular area. Interesting dynamic.

For the latest in the California DeCSS proceedings, you might wish to browse through Slashdot at a suitably high moderation threshold:

Full forum & posts:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/01/18/2111232

For a moderated view:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/01/18/2111232&mode=thread&threshold=1

The following post has a rather good blow-by-blow of the proceedings. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/01/18/2111232&cid=330

-- 
Karsten M. Self (kmself[_at_]ix.netcom.com)
    What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?

SAS for Linux: http://www.netcom.com/~kmself/SAS/SAS4Linux.html
Mailing list:  "subscribe sas-linux" to mailto:majordomo[_at_]cranfield.ac.uk