Blueport Co. v. United States

71 Fed. Cl. 768, 80 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1585, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 181, 2006 WL 1836165
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 29, 2006
DocketNo. 02-1622 C
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 71 Fed. Cl. 768 (Blueport Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blueport Co. v. United States, 71 Fed. Cl. 768, 80 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1585, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 181, 2006 WL 1836165 (uscfc 2006).

Opinion

Opinion

BLOCK, Judge.

Before this court is the defendant United States’ motion for partial summary judgment pursuant to Rule of the Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”) 56(b). The sole issue arising out of this motion, one of first impression, is whether the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction to adjudicate Count II of the Complaint — a claim for monetary damages against the United States arising under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq. (“DMCA”). Defendant argues that its motion should be granted because the DMCA does not expressly waive sovereign immunity. The court agrees.

I. Introduction

The law of copyright protection faces an unprecedented challenge brought on by rapid and far reaching technological innovations. The purpose of copyright law has always [770]*770been to provide authors an adequate level of legal protection to ensure that they profit from their creations while, at the same time, not prohibiting others from making improvements upon those ideas.1 This balance is created to increase the likelihood that the optimal level of creative works enters the market.2

But technology, ranging from as the widespread use of photocopiers to the growth of the Internet, has overwhelmed the institutional copyright protection framework, and thereby tilted economic incentives against protection and towards copying.3 S.Rep. No. 105-190, at 2 (1998). Copyright holders have responded by employing technological remedies, such as encryption coding and password protection, to counter these technological maladies. This, in turn, has led to countermeasures to circumvent software and other copyright protections, the most infamous being “hacking” into computers in order to destroy encrypted protections.4

By and large, United States and international copyright law did not provide effective remedies against such “circumvention.” Legal copyright protection generally prohibited the copying of most works, but did not address the technological measures designed to deny access to copyrighted works. H.R.Rep. No. 105-551(1) at 10 (1998). Similarly, the selling or “trafficking” of circumvention technology, software or otherwise, did not directly contravene copyright law so long as the copyrighted work was not copied by the purveyor of circumvention technology. Id.

In response to these problems, the World Intellectual Property Organization (‘WIPO”) held a diplomatic conference in Geneva, Switzerland in December, 1996. H.R.Rep. No. 105-551(1) at 9; H.R.Rep. No. 105-551(11) at 21 (1998); S.Rep. No. 105-190, at 5. Two separate treaties were consummated, the WIPO Copyright Treaty” and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty,” which were ratified by 160 countries. S.Rep. No. 105-190, at 5. The WIPO Copyright Treaty required ratifying nations to:

[Pjrovide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.

[771]*771World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, art. 11, Apr. 12, 1997, S. Treaty Doc. No. 106-17 (1997).

The United States responded with the DMCA, enacted in 1998. Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 435 (2d Cir.2001); H.R.Rep. No. 105-551(1) at 9; S.Rep. No. 105-190, at 8. In pertinent parts, the Act contains subsections directed at the circumvention of technological copyright protections, the trafficking of devices and software that abets such circumvention, and maintaining the integrity of copyright management information. The first part, DMCA § 1201(a)(1)(A), is the Act’s anti-circumvention provision, which prohibits the circumvention of technological measures, such as encryption, that protect copyrighted works. This provision prohibits any person from “eircumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under [Title 17, governing copyright].” 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(A). To “circumvent a technological measure” is statutorily defined as “to descramble a scrambled work ... or otherwise ... bypass ... a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner.” 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(3)(A). The anti-circumvention provision is at the heart of the instant motion in this ease.

The “anti-trafficking” provisions of the Act are DMCA § 1201(a)(2) and (b)(1), respectively. Both subsections prohibit trafficking in circumvention technology.5 The integrity of copyright information is addressed in DMCA § 1202(a) and (b). DMCA § 1202(a)(1), prohibits the supply or distribution of false copyright information, and DMCA § 1202(b)(1) prohibits the removal or alteration of copyright management information.

The DMCA remedy provisions are also significant, because they are implicated in the jurisdictional argument raised by plaintiff. DMCA § 1203(a)(1) provides monetary remedies, including trial damage awards and civil monetary penalties. DMCA § 1203(b)(1) provides permanent injunctive relief. Both are available through civil proceedings commenced in, “an appropriate United States district courts.” DMCA § 1203(a). Finally, criminal sanctions are available under DMCA § 1204.

The bare facts of the matter now before the court are quite simple.6 It involves a copyrighted computer management information program and the alleged attempts by the U.S. Air Force to circumvent technological safeguards designed to protect the program. Plaintiff is a limited liability corporation, organized in the State of Idaho. On March 6, 2000, plaintiff acquired all the rights to a computer program entitled AUMD and AUMD Admin (“computer program”) from Mr. Mark Davenport, who was then a Technical Sergeant in the Air Force. Allegedly, the computer program greatly increased the efficiency with which Air Force manpower resource requirement reports were generated. The computer program contained an automatic expiration function, so that the program would stop operating on a particular date. This feature was included in the program to control licensing and to prevent unauthorized use beyond the license expiration date. Plaintiff alleges, in essence, that Air Force personnel unlawfully “hacked” into the computer program to alter the automatic expiration function, to the Air Force’s advantage.

On November 18, 2002, plaintiff filed a complaint in which it contends, in Count I, that defendant’s acts infringed its copyright. Count II of the complaint is based on the theory that these same acts also constituted a violation of the DMCA.7 The latter count is [772]*772the subject of defendant’s motion for partial summary judgement. In particular, defendant argues that this court lacks of jurisdiction over Count II because the government has not waived its sovereign immunity from monetary suits under the DMCA.

II. Discussion

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Related

Pereira v. United States
84 Fed. Cl. 597 (Federal Claims, 2008)
Blueport Co., LLC v. United States
533 F.3d 1374 (Federal Circuit, 2008)
Blueport Co., LLP v. United States
76 Fed. Cl. 702 (Federal Claims, 2007)

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71 Fed. Cl. 768, 80 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1585, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 181, 2006 WL 1836165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blueport-co-v-united-states-uscfc-2006.