Movie biz set back in DeCSS case

The motion picture industry's California case against 21 people who have published a DVD encryption hack may have suffered a setback. The California Supreme Court has expressed doubt that it can rule against 18 of the defendants who reside outside the state.

DeCSS is Linux code, first posted by the 16-year-old Norwegian coder in October 1999, that bypasses security software on DVD-formatted movies to allow Linux users to play DVD movies. The industry's lawsuit seeks to ban distribution of the program and a similar suit has already succeeded in New York.

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