First Amendment lawyers take on DVD cracking case Free Speech6/5/2000; 7:11:43 AM April 4, 2000: "'The battleground over the First Amendment is now in cyberspace,' Jim Wheaton, senior counsel for nonprofit, public-interest law firm the First Amendment Project, said in a statement. 'Old media is lumbering into the new era and wants to knock down our civil liberties in a clumsy attempt to maintain the old paradigm.'"

I think the most distrubing thing is how readily the courts throw these arguments out as soon somebody with lots of money is involved. In a conflict between the laws concerning theft of intellectual property and the exercise of free speech... free speech wins, no matter how much it may cost some company, because free speech is constitutionally guaranteed and IP is not.

(Congress is granted the power "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries" (Article I, Section 8), but is not mandated to do so. The First Amendment is a guarantee.)