LemurZone News

The DVD industry AKA 'the entertainment conglomorates' suffered a setback in California's 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose yesterday.

The heart of this ruling was the DeCSS decryption code, software originally designed to allow DVD discs to be played on Linux boxes and created by a 15-year-old computer whiz in Norway who first posted the technology in 1999.

"The decision would be a devastating blow to the U.S. economy, and it makes absolutely no sense," said New York attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who represents the DVD Copy Control Association. "The decision is crazy. Beyond our case, if this decision becomes the law of the United States, all trade secrets laws are unconstitutional."

Devastating? I hardly think so. The entertainment industry would have you believe that they belong in the same catagories as Food, Clothing or Shelter. They don't. Then to call the three judges who handed down the Unanimous Decision 'crazy' is not the most elegant argument to use.

He then says that all trade secret laws are unconstitutional? Coca-Cola has been in business for over 80 years and their formula is still secret. We still don't know what the secret herbs and spices Kentucky Fried Chicken uses. What part of secret is he having a problem with?

The DVD industry's "statutory right to protect its economically valuable trade secret is not an interest that is `more fundamental' than the First Amendment right to freedom of speech," Justice Eugene Premo wrote for an unanimous three-judge panel.

This is the latest attempt of the entertainment industry to exert control over an area of communication it does not understand, cannot use effectively, nor can they control.

Intimidation through Litigation and buying legislation is not entertainment.
It is time to stop the Music.

Ruling a blow for DVD industry
read here - go there
Source: Howard Mintz: Silicon Valley.com

States Scorning U.S.-Microsoft Deal
read here - go there
Source: WashingtonPost.com

The US TV industry is suing consumer electronics manufacturer SonicBlue for infringing copyright with its latest ReplayTV digital recorder.

US TV biz sues ad-zapping SonicBlue
read here - go there
Source: The Register.com

We have to create an evolutionary approach in an open standards way
Common standards are the things that equalise everybody
It is very important we adopt a common standard space
It is very important we work together, along a common path

Microsoft sings praises of open standards
read here - go there
Source: The Register.com

The majority of what you see on your screen is written in Hyper Text Markup Language. This language has been carefully created to extend the capabilities of what can be communicated from one computer to another. The source for this is the W3C World Wide Web Consortium.

The W3C holds a special position in our little world. We in concert, without clubs, memberships, secret handshakes, or free mouse pads, have decided to agree on the W3C Recommendations as the stone tablets of our universe of the web. We are here as these 'standards' are non-propriatary, open source, and do not 'belong' to anybody. This means that we have a baseline to begin our exploration and experimentation with what we can get to show up in a browser.

News

Friday, November 02, 2001

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