In a surprising retreat today, the consortium of entertainment and technology companies known as DVD CCA has attempted to summarily dismiss a lawsuit against Andrew Bunner, a republisher of a computer program that was created to allow movie lovers to play their DVDs on computers that run the Linux operating system. The program is called DeCSS. DVDCCA effectively gave up a multi-year effort to have the republication of the program declared a violation of trade secret laws.

"DeCSS has been available on hundreds if not thousands of websites for 4 years, now" said Cindy Cohn, EFF's Legal Director. "We're pleased that the DVD CCA has finally stopped attempting to deny the obvious: DeCSS is not a secret."

The case reached the California Supreme Court last year and was the subject of ruling that held that computer programs could be preliminarily restrained from publication only in very narrow circumstances. Mr. Bunner was one of hundreds of people sued, including some T-shirt manufacturers.

EFF's Case Archive: DVD-CCA v. Bunner