IP: Hatch calls MS "knuckle-headed"; Judge limits media in DVD case

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 12:05:52 -0400
>To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36817,00.html
>
>DVD Mediation Sans Media
>by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>
>6:00 a.m. Jun. 7, 2000 PDT
>NEW YORK -- Michael Eisner can relax.
>
>Reporters may not attend the depositions of movie industry
>representatives in a lawsuit over DVD viewing software, a
>federal judge ruled late Tuesday.
>
>"I find that the First Amendment interest, if there is one, is
>outweighed by the risks," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan
>said during a hearing in New York federal court.
>
>News organizations had asked to be present when Disney's
>Eisner and Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association
>of America were questioned by attorneys for 2600 Magazine.
>The hacker zine is being sued by eight movie studios for
>distributing the DeCSS DVD-decryption utility on its website.
>
>But an angry Kaplan said the presence of journalists would
>give both sides an additional reason to squabble over what is
>confidential or not and delay the start of the trial, which is
>scheduled to begin in July.
>
>"I have every reason to believe that the presence of the
>press would at best engender disputes and difficulty ... and
>at worst encourage even more grandstanding," Kaplan said.
>
>"The likelihood that these scorpions in a bottle are ever going
>to agree on anything is near zero," Kaplan said of the lawyers
>for both sides.
>
>Representatives of Wired News, Times Mirror, the Village
>Voice, and E-Commerce Law Weekly had asked for open
>depositions, saying that the public interest demanded it and
>the law allows it.
>
>[...]
>
>
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36804,00.html
>
>Hatch: MS 'Knuckle-Headed'
>by Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead
>
>1:20 p.m. Jun. 6, 2000 PDT
>WASHINGTON -- Whatever happens in Microsoft's antitrust
>case, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch says
>it's not personal, only business.
>
>Microsoft-foe Hatch, a Utah Republican, spoke to an industry
>conference Wednesday about topics including privacy, patent
>reform, and the controversy surrounding Napster.
>
>[...]
>
>Hatch described Microsoft's approach to the case as
>"knuckle-headed and hard-nosed. ... I have given (Microsoft)
>advice, and they don't pay any attention to it."
>
>[...]