"..Free speech lawyers have appealed a preliminary injunction granted against 72 Web site operators accused of stealing trade secrets by circulating a program online that lets people crack the security on DVDs. The foundation argues that the Web site postings of the program are constitutionally protected free speech and do not meet the test of trade secret infringement.

"The battleground over the First Amendment is now in cyberspace," Jim Wheaton, senior counsel for nonprofit, public-interest law firm the First Amendment Project, said in a statement. "Old media is lumbering into the new era and wants to knock down our civil liberties in a clumsy attempt to maintain the old paradigm."