Hollywood tries to block DVD decoder
The seven major Hollywood studios, through its trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America, have been waging a legal battle against Eric Corley and his company, 2600 Enterprises, to keep him from posting links to a software program on his Internet site that enables people to copy DVD movies. The studios are worried that rampant copying of DVD movies will undermine the home-entertainment market, one of Hollywood's biggest revenue sources.
On Jan. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan issued an injunction against Corley and two other Web sites prohibiting them from posting the software that allows people to decode encrypted DVDs. But the MPAA says Corley has been "maneuvering around" that injunction by posting links to more than 300 other Web sites that still carry the downloadable program, thus undermining the court's order.
Martin Garbus, an attorney for Corley, said he hadn't yet read the petition and therefore couldn't comment. The decryption program, known as DeCSS, is banned under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, says the MPAA.