Court Ruling in 1201 Challenge

June 28, 2019

In Chapter 5, I briefly discuss a case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenging the constitutionality of the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (better known as “Section 1201”). At the time the book was written, the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and the defendants’ motion to dismiss were pending.

On June 27, 2019, the court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss, leaving intact only an as-applied challenge on grounds that the government failed to establish that the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions  do not burden more speech than necessary to achieve their intended ends. The court did not rule on the motion for preliminary injunction. The full opinion is below.

The case is Green, et al. v. U.S. Department of Justice, et al., Civil No. 16-01492, pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

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