Hollywood Pulls A Felten On DVD CSS Hosting Case
from the amazing dept
In a surprise move today, the folks suing Andrew Bunner for hosting (not writing) a copy of the DeCSS code that is available all over the internet have dropped the case, basically admitting that they were going to lose, and it wasn't worth bothering with. The case was very weak from the beginning, and even involved trying to argue completely irrelevant issues in court to hide the fact that they couldn't win on the issues. This is good news, though, once again, it's a situation where the entertainment industry has dropped a case that they started, rather than lost the case. This is becoming quite a pattern - ever since they did this with Ed Felten. Basically, they sue people (or threaten to sue them) until they fight back - and then drop the case before the courts can rule against them and set a precedent. Can we call this "Pulling a Felten"?
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Pulled a Rosen?
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Re: Pulled a Rosen?
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Re: Pulled a Rosen?
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The legal system needs to change....
Works in other countries... of course, the USA is the be all and end all of democracy and legal systems right? (wrong!)
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Re: Pulled a Rosen?
Thanks Oliver, that sounds a lot better.
I don't necessarily think "pulling a Felten" is meant to be negative towards Ed Felten, but considering the fact that it is used to describe a shady legal maneuver that Ed had nothing to do with as far as the decision to employ it was concerned (other than not roll over and take it.) If it were me, I'd prefer "scoring a Felten" over "pulling a Felten".
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Re: The legal system needs to change....
I agree, though I think it should go futher than that...if anyone filing a lawsuit decides to pull out after the defense gets legal counsel, they should be forced to pay the defendant's legal bills. That is the way it is when a plantiff looses a legal battle in most cases, why can't a withdrawl be threated as a loss. If it gets to the court, it should be required to be decided, even if the plantiff decides not to continue with the complaint.
I think it would cut back on the costs of the legal system too, and put lawyers with questionable ethics into a much more difficult situation. Can anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't be a good idea?
the USA is the be all and end all of democracy and legal systems right?
Nobody here has said that it was... And I am not about to get into an argument with you of violent agreement again.
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