May 6 Oral Argument Is Set in D.C. Circuit DMCA First Amendment Appeal

The U.S. Circuit Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit scheduled oral argument for May 6 at 9:30 a.m. in the appeal that challenges the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act on First Amendment grounds, said a clerk’s order Monday (docket 23-5159). The composition of the three-judge argument panel will be disclosed about a month in advance, said the order. A separate order will be issued about the allocation of time for argument, it said. Plaintiff-appellants Matthew Green, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute; Andrew Huang, an electrical engineer and hacker; and Alphamax, a video processing platform company, seek to reverse the lower court’s dismissal of their case (see 2311300055). The appellants want to engage in certain activities but fear they will be prosecuted under the provisions of the DMCA, and so they brought a pre-enforcement challenge to those provisions on First Amendment grounds.