The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Hollywood studios and electronics makers a temporary victory by stepping into a long-running dispute over software that can be used to copy DVDs.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor last week placed a ruling by the California Supreme Court on hold, a decision that effectively enforces an injunction until the full court can consider the case.
An organization of movie studios and consumer-electronics makers filed the lawsuit in 1999 against scores of activists who posted the DeCSS.exe utility. The suit by the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) alleged violations of California's trade secret laws, and a state judge granted an injunction against the defendants.
But the California Supreme Court, in a split decision last November, ruled that defendant Matthew Pavlovich was a resident of Texas with no substantial contact with California who could not be sued in that state.
O'Connor's order "stays the injunction and keeps it in effect for Mr. Pavlovich until the U.S. Supreme Court can decide what it's going to do next," said Jeffrey Kessler, a partner at Weil, Gotshal and Manges who is representing the DVD CCA. Kessler had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
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