court enjoined 321 Studios from manufacturing, distributing, linking to, or otherwise trafficking
in any of its software products that were capable of decrypting CSS.^1129
(xi) Macrovision Corp. v. 321 StudiosIn this case, the same judge as in the Paramount Pictures case, in a one paragraph opinion
that simply cited his earlier decision in the Paramount Pictures case, issued a preliminary
injunction against 321 Studios barring it from selling the various versions of its DVD copying
software.^1130 In August of 2004, 321 Studios reached a settlement with the motion picture
industry, which included a financial payment and an agreement to stop distributing its DVD
copying software worldwide, and ceased operations.^1131
(xii) Comcast of Illinois X v. Hightech Electronics, Inc.In this case, the defendant Hightech set up a website named 1-satellite-dish.com that
contained links to over thirty other websites selling illegal cable pirating devices. Comcast
brought claims under Sections 1201(a)(2) and (b)(1) against the website as well as against Net
Results, the named domain server for the 1-satellite-dish.com website.^1132 The defendants
argued that only copyright holders can bring suit under the anti-circumvention provisions and
that Comcast, in regard to the cable signals at issue, was not the copyright owner. The court
rejected this argument, citing CSC Holdings, Inc. v. Greenleaf Electronics, Inc., 2000 U.S. Dist.
LEXIS 7675 (N.D. Ill. 2000), which held that the plaintiff cable provider had standing to bring
suit under Section 1203(a) against the defendants for selling and distributing pirate cable
descrambling equipment, as it was a person injured by a violation of the DMCA Accordingly,
the Comcast court concluded that Comcast could bring its claim under the DMCA.^1133
With respect to the merits of the DMCA claims, the court ruled that Comcast controlled
through technological measures access to copyrighted programs it provided to its subscribers by
scrambling those programs, and that such measures also protected the rights of the copyright
owners in those programs, as required by Sections 1201(a)(2) and (b)(1). Citing the Reimerdes
case, the court noted that there can be a violation of the DMCA for maintaining links to other
websites that contain access to or information regarding circumvention technology. The court
noted that the Intellectual Reserve case had refused to find contributory liability for posting links
to infringing websites because there was no direct relationship between the defendant and the
(^1129) Paramount Pictures Corp. v. 321 Studios, 69 U.S.P.Q.2d 2023, 2023-24 (S.D.N.Y. 2004).
(^1130) Macrovision Corp. v. 321 Studios, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8345 (S.D.N.Y. May 12, 2004).
(^1131) “Maker of DVD-Copying Products Reaches Settlement Over Suits” (Aug. 10, 2004), available as of Aug. 11,
2004 at http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9364923.htm.
(^1132) Comcast of Illinois X v. Hightech Electronics, Inc., 2004 Copyr. L. Dec. ¶ 28,840 at pp. 37,299 & 37,232-33
(N.D. Ill. 2004).
(^1133) Id. at 37,233.