Abstract
This comment discusses the facts of the Bunner case and the decisions of the Sixth District and the Supreme Court. The Bunner case involves Andrew Bunner and his act of putting a link on his Web page allowing visitors to access a Digitial Video Disc (DVD) descrambler program, which allowed a computer user to decrypt DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association sought an injunction against Bunner under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA). The author analyzes the historical protection given free speech and trade secrets under California law. Looking at the Bunner case in light of Pruneyard, the author notes that the constitutional right to free speech outweighs the trade secret protection under the California UTSA. The comment concludes that the Sixth District likely decided the case soundly, as California's historical heightened protection of free speech allowed the Sixth District to give computer code pure speech protection.
Repository Citation
Adam J. Sheridan,
What Does Pruneyard Have To Do With California Internet Trade Secret Law?,
8 Marq. Intellectual Property L. Rev. 317
(2004).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/iplr/vol8/iss2/6