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RealDVD case Judge seals courtroom again

by on30 April 2009

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Hear no evil and see no evil

In hearing testimony today, Judge Marilyn Patel, the U.S. District Court Judge hearing the case of the Motion Picture Association (MPAA) and the DVD Copy Control Association (DCAA) vs. RealDVD case, granted a motion filed by the DCAA’s attorneys to close the courtroom to the public for the second time. Judge Patel had ordered the courtroom closed last week, as we reported earlier.

In her ruling today the Judge indicated that the courtroom would be sealed again, but only for the portion of testimony that applied to trade secrets. News sources covering the case were upset by the ruling, as it is rare for a judge to order any courtroom hearing closed due to the nature of a free press provided under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

An attorney representing CNET news objected and attempted to propose that the Judge allow the courtroom to remain open for the portion of the testimony that did not concern trade secrets, with the trade secrets information being recorded on video and kept under seal. The CNET attorney also indicated that the MPAA should have filed a previous motion to close the court room, which they did not do. The Judge denied the motion.

"I think it's very clear from the licensing with respect to specifications the in-depth nature of those specifications," Patel told Myers. "There are trade secrets and there is economic value to them...I'm not going to stop the court proceedings now, not at this late hour."

Patel once said she would only keep the court sealed for the testimony on what DVD-CCA claimed was trade secrets. The majority of the encryption code being argued over by the DVD-CCA can be found on the Web, and has even been published on t-shirts and other marketing products. Despite this, the DVD-CCA’s lawyers have argued and continue to argue that any disclosure of it would cause severe financial harm to the MPAA.
Last modified on 30 April 2009
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