Oh look! I've been threatened. By e-mail. From an address that, quite frankly, looks like something a spammer would use (HINT HINT): mpaa.23@gateway.net.
If you are bound by an injunction, maintaining the DeCSS utility on your system or network violates the above injunction[s] and risks court sanctions for contempt. (emphasis mine)I believe this statement reflects a weakness in their position. I do not believe I am bound by either of the injunctions. According to the New York injunction, it applies to:
Defendants Shawn C. Reimerdes, Eric Corley a/k/a "Emmanuel Goldstein" and Roman Kazan, their officers, agents, servants, employees and attorneys and all persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of this order by personal service or otherwise be and they hereby are enjoined and restrained, pending the hearing and final determination of this action from:It could perhaps be argued that I am indeed a "persons acting in active concert with them". I do not agree with this position, since I have had no direct or indirect contact with the defendants. In fact, I was not aware of their case until this notices was given to me. I have also not received notice of this order via personal service.
Moving on to the California injunction, it applies to:
The named Defendants, their officers, directors, principals, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, successors and assigns, representative and all persons acting in concert with them.Even if I am included in this group, I believe that this is a moot point, since the State Court of California has no jurisdiction over my actions in Connecticut. I have been informed that there is an active court case filed in the State of Connecticut. Since I am not named as the defendant, that currently has no bearing on this situations.
So here you go:
The following links are dead for the moment. Sorry...
DeCSS.zip
css-auth.tar.gz
livid.tar.gz
My position may change as the situation warrants.
Dear Sirs,
At this time, I have no reason to trust the veracity of this note. The address it was sent from ("mpaa.23") does not seem to be a valid Internet e-mail address. Until I have received a copy of this request via registered mail, I will of course disregard this notice.
Thank you for your correspondence,
*Me*
Date: February 7, 2000
RE: Illegal Provision of DeCSS/Circumvention Device
Site/URL: smackfu.com
Dear *Me*:
The Motion Picture Association of America is authorized to act on behalf of the following copyright owners:
On January 20, 2000, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting the Internet posting or other provision of DeCSS, having found that DeCSS was a prohibited circumvention device within the meaning of §1201(a)(2) and that the offering, providing or trafficking of DeCSS on the Internet violated §1201(a)(2). That court thus enjoined:
Posting on any Internet web site, or in any other way manufacturing, importing or offering to the public, providing, or otherwise trafficking in DeCSS, and (b) posting on any Internet web site, or in any other way manufacturing, importing or offering to the public, providing, or otherwise trafficking in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that: (i) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing, or circumvention the protection afforded by, CSS, or any other technological measure that effectively controls access to plaintiffs’ copyrighted works or effectively protects the plaintiffs’ rights to control whether an end user can reproduce, manufacture, adapt, publicly perform and/or distribute unauthorized copies of their copyrighted works or portions thereof. . .The Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California also recently granted a Preliminary Injunction against the Internet posting of DeCSS.
If you are bound by an injunction, maintaining the DeCSS utility on your system or network violates the above injunction[s] and risks court sanctions for contempt.
We hereby demand that you:
1) take appropriate steps to cause immediate removal of DeCSS from the above identified URL, along with such other actions as may be necessary or appropriate to suspend this illegal activity;Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Your immediate response is requested.2) provide appropriate notice to the subscriber or account holder responsible for the presence of DeCSS on your system or network, advising him/her of the contents of this notice and directing that person to contact the undersigned immediately at the e-mail address provided above;
3) advise us of the name and physical address of the person operating this site; and
4) maintain, and take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the destruction of, all records, including electronic records, in your possession or control respecting this URL, account holder or subscriber.
The information in this notification is accurate, and we declare, under penalty of perjury, that the Motion Picture Association of America is authorized to act on behalf of the owner[s] of exclusive rights described above.
Should you have any questions, please contact us at the above listed address.
Respectfully,
The Motion Picture Association of America