This coming Dec. 15, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will engage in a rare en banc rehearing of a case that, culturally speaking, has everything: movies, politics, terrorism, fatwas and the Internet. Legally speaking, the case is a porcupine of thorny issues involving copyright law, the First Amendment, the propriety of injunctive relief, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Will the 9th Circuit reverse, or modify some portion of, the panel decision? Acceptance of en banc review hints that at least some members of the 9th Circuit think it should. While in some ways surprising, however, criticized aspects of the panel decision under review are defensible, and arguably correct.
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