Remember the DVDCCA case? That's the OTHER DVD lawsuit we've been involved in thanks to the people at the DVD Copy Control Association. It's been held up in court while jurisdictional issues are resolved. Later today, a hearing will take place in a California court on whether the court can actually charge people from all around the world. One of the 500 defendants, Matthew Pavlovich, has challenged the court's jurisdiction.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued this statement regarding the hearing:

Tech-Savvy Indiana Student Snared in California Court
Court Reconsiders Due Process for Alleged Software Publisher

Debate over whether Indiana student Matthew Pavlovich must appear in a DVD software publication case will continue July 12 in a California court. In December 2000, a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled that the appellate court must reconsider its decision requiring Pavlovich to defend himself in a California court.

The movie industry trade group DVD-CCA continues attempts to force Pavlovich and 500 anonymous posters located all over the world to defend themselves against alleged trade secret misappropriation despite the hardships these alleged web publishers would face in a legal battle fought far from their homes.

"The importance of Constitutional restrictions on the reach of state courts has never been more important than in the Internet age," said Pavlovich's attorney Allonn Levy, of the HS Law Group. "Without the proper application of these safeguards, the Internet will become a liability minefield for users, facing nation-wide legal exposure anytime they publish to the Internet, dramatically chilling speech on the Web," explained the San Jose litigator.

"The US Constitution's due process clause guarantees that you will not be sued in Santa Clara, California, 2000 miles away from the Indiana student dormitory where you surf the web," stated Robin Gross, EFF staff attorney for intellectual property and Pavlovich's co-counsel.

In December 1999, DVD-CCA sued hundreds of individuals, including Indiana college student Matthew Pavlovich, for allegedly publishing DeCSS software on a website that hosted various Linux-based open-source projects.

The movie industry, represented by its trade group DVD-CCA, filed the lawsuit in California alleging trade secret misappropriation. The suit attempts to force Pavlovich and 500 anonymous posters located all over the world to defend their Internet publication of the software in California.

Trial and appellate courts both denied Pavlovich's motion for dismissal, but in a rare move last December, the California Supreme Court unanimously granted Pavlovich's petition for review and sent the matter back to the appellate court for argument on why the non-California resident with no connection to the state should remain in the case.

The U.S. Constitution's due process clause limits a state court's ability to assert power over out-of-state defendants who have no connection with that state.

DeCSS is free software that allows people to play DVDs without technological restrictions, such as region codes, preferred by movie studios.

At a January 2000 hearing, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Elfving ordered defendants to remove postings of DeCSS pending the case's outcome at trial. The 6th Appellate Circuit court will hear EFF's appeal of Elfving's ruling this fall.

The appeals court has stayed the alleged trade secret misappropriation case pending the outcome of Pavlovich's jurisdictional motion.

The California 6th Appellate Court will hear arguments on the case on Thursday, July 12th at 9:30 a.m. at 333 W. Santa Clara St., 10th floor, in San Jose, California. For directions see http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/6thDistrict/

See Pavlovich's appellate motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction: http://www.eff.org/sc/dvdcca/20000921_pavlovich_appeal.html

See DVD-CCA's opposition to original request for dismissal: http://www.eff.org/sc/dvdcca/20000825_dvdcca_opp.html

EFF's Archive on California DeCSS case: http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/DVDCCA_case/

Cryptome.org Archive with more legal filings: http://cryptome.org/cryptout.htm#DVD-DeCSS