- Susan Illston
Susan Yvonne Illston is a San Francisco,
California -based judge for theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California in theNinth Judicial Circuit . She was nominated by PresidentBill Clinton on January 23, 1995 and confirmed by the Senate on May 25, 1995. Prior to her appointment, she had served in private practice in Burlingame,California . She is a graduate ofDuke University andStanford Law School .Judge Illston is probably best known for her ruling in the noted
321 Studios case.Fact|date=August 2008 In February 2004, she ruled that the company's software, which was intended, according to the company, to allow consumers to make back up copies of pre-recorded ("pressed")DVD video s by "circumventing" so-called "copy protection " methods, was illegal under Federal law. She issued aninjunction at the behest of several Hollywood studios ordering321 Studios to stop selling their product.Despite finding that the software violated Federal law, she ruled that copies made by consumers (of their own legally accessed DVD videos) were, in fact, legal. She wrote in her opinion, "It is the technology itself at issue, not the uses to which the copyrighted material may be put.... Legal downstream use of the copyrighted material by customers is not a defense to the software manufacturer's violation of the provisions (of copyright law)." [ [http://news.cnet.com/Judge-DVD-copying-software-is-illegal/2100-1025_3-5162749.html "Judge: DVD-copying software is illegal"]
Cnet , accessed 24 AUG 2008]In August 2006, Illston sentenced the chemist who developed an undetectable performance-enhancing drug for
BALCO to three months in prison. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2539231 "Man who concocted 'the clear' gets 3 months in prison"] -Associated Press , 8/4/06]In July of 2008, she dismissed a
copyright infringement andracketeering lawsuit against theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), filed by radio hostMichael Savage .Fact|date=August 2008References
External links
* [http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj Federal Judicial Center Profile]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.