DeCSS Defense Brief

John Young's excellent Cryptome site has posted a new salvo in the DeCSS conflict. The Defendant's Reply Brief to Linking Motion and Cross-Motion to Vacate Preliminary Injunction is a bit lengthy but contains all sorts of good information in the main document and in the Declarations attached from Harold Abelson, Andrew Appel, Chris DiBona, Bruce Fries, Martin Garbus, John Gilmore, Robin Gross, Lewis Kurlantzick, Eben Moglen, Matt Pavlovich, Bruce Schneier, Barbara Simons, Frank Stevenson, Dave Touretsky, David Wagner, and John Young.

Re:Hm, linking as part of free speech.

[Proteus]

Are our webpage links, like yours to http://radiantmatrix.org/, considered part of the "comment"? I don't think so, as they are replicated over many comments, but IANAL.

That might be a little sketchy, but I would be willing to bet that since that link is only in the header of _my_ comment, I own its copyright. What worries me is that sigs like yours, which links to DeCSS, could be the source of lawsuits: not against you, but against Slashdot.

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Hm, linking as part of free speech.

[Proteus]

This is indeed a well-written brief. It constantly refers to excellent precedent to support the notion that a hyperlink -- regardless of the nature of information on the target site -- is as much protected speech as saying that such information exists. There is also the powerful point of how much the plaintiffs are over-reacting to this situation: this isn't national security.

I found it very persuasive, but I sincerely hope the judge that reviews has a nice dose of Cloo(tm).

This decision could have far-reaching implications: if linking is not held to be protected speech, any of us who have a website could then be obligated to verify the legality of anything we link to. This bodes ill for publicly-managed sites. Just think of Slashdot: they could be sued over links in our sigs. (Granted, Slashdot would likely win since the commenter is clearly the copyright owner, but it would still hurt to have expensive lawsuits being served constantly)

I wouldn't let this one sleep -- we need to make an issue of this so that site linking remains free speech.

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Re:A Bit Lengthy?

[jellicle]

It convinces me, but I'm a soft mark for free speech arguments.

It's not on the front page because I think the majority of slashdot readers do not have any particular interest in reading a 50 page legal brief. The ones who really care will see it in this section, and the rest wouldn't read it anyway.

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Michael Sims-michael at slashdot.org

What worries me

[mcrandello]

Is the fact that they continually use the term "piracy". I can't help but thinking that lawyers should be able to choose a more descriptive, and less loaded term for unauthorized copying/distrobution. Maybe RMS ought to drop them a note. OTOH it does seem very well written, and seems to deliver their point quite well.

A Bit Lengthy?

[Jim Tyre]

The Defendant's Reply Brief to Linking Motion and Cross-Motion to Vacate Preliminary Injunction is a bit lengthy

A bit lengthy?

Meaning no disrespect to my friend Michael, but the document was written to convince the Court, not slashdot readers. ;-)

This lawyer's view is that it does a nice job of that, though I hazard no predictions as to how Kaplan will view it.

Why is this story not on slashdot's top page?

Re:Hm, linking as part of free speech.

[LoonXTall]

This bodes ill for publicly-managed sites. Just think of Slashdot: they could be sued over links in our sigs. (Granted, Slashdot would likely win since the commenter is clearly the copyright owner, but it would still hurt to have expensive lawsuits being served constantly)

Are our webpage links, like yours to http://radiantmatrix.org/ [radiantmatrix.org], considered part of the "comment"? I don't think so, as they are replicated over many comments, but IANAL.

-- LoonXTall

Re:Hm, linking as part of free speech.

[LoonXTall]

...I would be willing to bet that since that link is only in the header of _my_ comment, I own its copyright. What worries me is that sigs like yours, which links to DeCSS, could be the source of lawsuits: not against you, but against Slashdot.

If we own the links in our headers, we should also own the links in our sigs.

-- LoonXTall