Is hyperlinking to decryption software illegal?

摘要

Is a computer program a form of speech, protected in the UnitednStates under the First Amendment of its Constitution, or is it a device?nIn a case now under appeal, a federal court in New York City ruled thatnso called DeCSS software $computer code that breaks the encryptionnscheme of DVDs - while deemed speech of a sort, does not merit thenconstitutional protection afforded to "pure expression." The federalncourt agreed with the case's movie-industry plaintiffs that DeCSSn"accomplishes a mechanical task," and so resembles a device and is notnprotected. The court went even further: hyperlinks to pages with thenDeCSS code may in some cases not be constitutionally protected speechnand could be prohibited from being implemented. The plaintiffs in thencase, eight movie studios, belong to an industry trade group, the MotionnPicture Association of America, in Encino, Calif. The studios sued 2600,na quarterly magazine for hackers, for publishing the DeCSS code on itsnWeb site and linking to other pages that also displayed the DeCSS code.nThe suit asked that 2600 be enjoined from both activities. The studiosnare concerned that code like DeCSS renders their encryption schemenineffective, and that illegal copying and distribution of digital moviesncould become widespread