Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
273 F.3d 429 (2001)
After several individuals created DeCSS, a program circumventing the Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption that Universal City Studios (Universal) (plaintiff) and other studios used to protect DVD content, Eric Corley (defendant) posted DeCSS's underlying computer code on his website along with information about how it could be used to duplicate DVD content, and Universal sued for facilitating encryption-circumventing technology in violation of the DMCA. Corley defended on First Amendment grounds, arguing computer code was protected speech; the district court held the posting violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions and issued a permanent injunction barring Corley from posting or linking to DeCSS, and Corley appealed.
Whether the posting or linking of computer code deemed unlawful under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is protected speech under the First Amendment.