Final legal briefs were filed today in a New York case that Hollywood studios say could determine the future of the DVD industry. The case has pitted the studios against legendary hacker 'zine 2600--and publisher Eric Corley--which posted a software program online that allows protected DVDs to be decoded and watched on computers. The movie industry says the program facilitates widespread copying of movies online and sued to block propagation of the software.

Attorneys for 2600 say there's no hard evidence that the software has ever been used to copy software and distribute it illegally, and that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is treading on freedom of expression rights in its efforts to protect its copyrights.

"At trial, after nearly 10 months of investigation, (the MPAA) could not produce even one instance of such infringement on a CD or DVD or on the Internet," Corley's attorneys wrote today. "Their unimaginative fever-dreams should not convince the court to order the rest of society to stop inquiring, innovating or publishing." NULL