The suit was filed on behalf of Ben Edelman, a 22-year-old
programmer who is researching internet filtering software. Edelman
had testified as an expert witness in a case brought by the ACLU
against a federal law that compelled libraries to install filtering
software.
In that lawsuit, Edelman reviewed software sold by Seattle
company N2H2, used to block web sites for public libraries and
state governments. He claimed that such software is “fundamentally
unable” to consistently block only pornographic web sites.
The suit also seeks an injunction that would bar N2H2 from suing
Edelman under the DMCA. It is also asking the court to declare that
the N2H2’s licence agreement for the filtering software is
unenforceable, misuses copyright laws and is contrary to federal
and state public policy.
This is because it forces licensees to accept a “fine print”
contract requiring that they won’t attempt to access the list of
blocked sites.
Mr Edelman said: the public has the right to know what is
being blocked, and I believe I have the right to uncover this
information without being subject to a corporate lawsuit.”
The DMCA provides for broad prohibitions against circumventing
copy-protection techniques. Last year, the Library of Congress
ruled that there is an exemption which applies to “compilations
consisting of lists of web sites blocked by filtering software
applications.” However the exemption does not cover researchers who
write and distribute software that decodes the encrypted lists.
