The case was brought by the California-based DVD Copy Control
Association (CCA), a group that licenses encryption software for
DVDs, against Matthew Pavlovich, now president of a Texas-based IT
consultancy.
The group claims that Pavlovich infringed trade secrets by
posting on his web site the source code of a program that can be
used to decrypt Content Scrambling Code (CSS), a software system
that protects copyrighted movies on DVDs.
Pavlovich posted the code, known as DeCSS, in 1999, when he was
a college student in Indiana. He claimed that he could not be sued
in California because he posted the code "passively" and had no
substantial contact with California. He also argued that he had no
intention to harm the state's computer and movie industries.
The DVD CCA, on the other hand, claimed that he should be sued
in California, since the movie industry – the party most harmed by
DVD copying – was based there. The US Supreme Court in November
2002 rejected this argument, ruling that there was no evidence
suggesting Pavlovich specifically targeted California and therefore
he could not be sued there.
In December 2002 the US Supreme Court issued an emergency stay,
an order placing the ruling on hold and temporarily barring
Pavlovich from posting the code in dispute on the internet, in
order to allow the submission of further evidence.
The emergency stay was granted at the request of the DVD CCA. On
Friday, however, the stay was apparently lifted and therefore the
November decision applies.
The DVD CCA has said it is now considering whether to sue
Pavlovich in Texas.
