The Bunner case is one of a number of legal tactics that the DVD CCA is pursing in order to put a lid on the publication of DeCSS, which would presumably violate the DMCA if it had been originally developed and published in the United States instead of Norway.  This case, like the Pavlovich case, was an attempt to find the defendants guilty of violating trade secrets.

The problem with this tactic is very simple: DeCSS is now published on many websites worldwide, and thousands more websites link to those sites on which it is published.  Therefore it scarcely qualifies as a "secret."  Trade secret violation is similar to violation of a confidential disclosure agreement; most of the latter agreements contain carveouts that absolve the disclosee of liability if he obtained the supposedly confidential information through third parties.  Similarly, it is hard to make trade secret violation charges stick if the information is so widely available, even if the information's owner has taken documented steps to prevent its publication. 

Common sense has shut down what may have looked like a promising legal avenue for the DVD CCA when they brought the case four years ago.  Now it will have to find other ways to control the damage done by its flimsy copy protection scheme.

[DRM Watch thanks Glen Secor of Secor Law and Information Group for help with this story.]