Pavlovich back in court
Last we heard, the Supreme Court of California decided California
lacked jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit against Pavlovich on the
grounds that he's not a resident and doesn't have anything to do with
the state. They issued an injunction prohibiting the lawsuit from
proceeding in California.
The US Supreme Court (in the person of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor)
has stayed that injunction. This prevents outright dismissal of the
case, and keeps it on hold, so that the Supreme Court when it meets
back in session later this month can decide whether to grant review.
I haven't heard definitively that the DVD CCA has actually filed for
SCOTUS review; they are allowed to ask for an injunction even if they
haven't yet actually filed.
I haven't got a clue what exactly SCOTUS would have to say about
this; I would actually be quite surprised if they even grant review.
The California decision was predicated on California law. There are
some federal issues about access to courts in other states, but it's
not clear to me at all that there are any such issues here that would
override California's right to decide for ourselves that we don't have
jurisdiction over someone in another state. Time will tell.
The other case is the Bunner case. Bunner did not reject California's
jurisdiction, but argued that prohibition on the publication of DeCSS
amounted to unconstitutional prior restraint on publication. This
argument was accepted by a the California Court of Appeal. DVD CCA
has asked the California Supreme Court to hear an appeal from that
decision, but no date has yet been set. If the California Supreme
Court upholds the Court of Appeal decision in the Bunner case, we can
be sure that DVD CCA will take the case to SCOTUS. It's not at all
clear whether SCOTUS would grant review to this either.
Thomas
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