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Public Booted from DVD Copying Trial over Secret CSS Code

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Whether the public has a right to make a fair use copy of DVDs is on trial in a San Francisco federal court. Yet the public may never know whether the verdict was reached fairly because the presiding judge removed the press just as the nuts and bolts of the case was to be aired out.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patels contempt for the media is widely known by the San Francisco tech press. Patel, a Carter appointee, presided over the Napster trial in one of the smallest courtrooms in the San Francisco federal building despite unsuccessful press pleas that the high-profile case be moved to a substantially larger courtroom that perpetually sits vacant. Hence, many reporters were excluded for lack of space.

Fast forward to Friday. Patel excluded several reporters from the same courtroom in a case testing Hollywoods lock on the DVD. The press, including Wired, CNET, Reuters, Bloomberg News Service, The New York Times and The Associated Press and other outlets were ordered removed as the guts of the case got underway.

Patel said the code of the Content Scramble System used to encrypt DVDs and prevent their copying was a trade secret. She told the press to scram when a University of California at Davis computer science scholar was called to testify about whether RealNetworks DVD copying software circumvented the CSS.

In a case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America, Patel has tentatively blocked distribution of the DVD copying software known as RealDVD, pending the outcome of a three-day hearing that resumes here Tuesday. The MPAA says a ruling against the studios would send the wrong message that its OK to copy DVDs and would likely lead to feeding frenzy by technology companies to produce the best DVD copying wares.

Still, if the RealDVD software circumvents the CSS encryption, theres no fair use right to copy DVDs, and Hollywood retains its grip on the DVD. The Seattle-based technology concern, RealNetworks, claims no circumvention, and that a contract between it and the CSS-license granter the DVD Copy Control Association allows for the RealDVD technology.

That said, Patel labeled the CSS a trade secret after only a few moments of public discourse. Greg Sandoval, a gonzo scribe for CNET, stood up and objected to the MPAAs move for closure. The judge, however, said she wasnt about to waste the courts time and parse, bit by bit, which pieces of the code have been cracked and published on the internet and which parts have not.

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