Pavlovich

[Aimee Farr]

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/h021961.pdf
Filed 8/7/01
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
MATTHEW PAVLOVICH,
Petitioner,
v.
THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
SANTA CLARA COUNTY,
Respondent;
DVD COPY CONTROL ASSOCIATION,
INC.,
Real Party in Interest.
H021961
(Santa Clara County
Super. Ct. No. CV786804)
Petitioner Matthew Pavlovich petitions for a writ of mandate to compel the
trial
court to quash service of process.
We deny the petition.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On December 27, 1999, real party in interest DVD Copy Control Association,
Inc.
(DVD CCA) filed a complaint in the superior court against petitioner and
other
defendants for misappropriation of trade secrets. The complaint alleged that
petitioner
had repeatedly republished DVD CCAs trade secrets and copyrighted material
throughout the Internet.

...Pavlovich is the president of a start-up technology company. He was,
[f]or the
most part of . . . four years, a computer engineering student at Purdue
University, and
had worked as a computer technician for Best Buy and Pingtek Corporation.
The
discovery materials on record indicate that Pavlovich and the other
defendants developed
and/or posted computer programs on the Internet, including a program called
DeCSS, that
misappropriate DVD CCAs trade secrets. Such computer programs have been
designed...

...The question in this case is whether Californias long-arm statute
reaches owners, publishers, and operators of those Web sites when, in
violation of California law, they make available for copying or distribution
trade secrets or copyrighted material of California companies. We hold it
does.

...Here, Pavlovich, a computer engineering student, a technician in the
computer and
telecommunications industry, and the founder and president of a start-up
technology
company, knew that California is commonly known as the center of the motion
picture
industry, and that the computer industry holds a commanding presence in the
state. In his
deposition, Pavlovich spoke of Californias dominance in the motion picture
industry, as
follows:

Q. . . . Are you aware -- do you have any understanding where the major
motion pictures studios [sic] are located?
A [by Pavlovich]. By major Im just going to go out on a limb here in
that you
mean some of the larger motion picture producers or production companies.
Q. Thats correct. The sort of plaintiffs that were the plaintiffs in the
matter
that you were just an expert witness in.
A. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, they make a lot of movies in
California, Hollywood, yeah.
Q. Right. So whats your understanding of the term Hollywood?
A. Hollywood is the big area in California where they make a lot of movies
and a lot of movie stars live and whatnot.

...So also here, the fact that Pavlovich used the new medium of the Internet
to inflict
harm on a California plaintiff, instead of the print media that was used in
Calder, is
irrelevant. It should not matter whether the delivery system used to inflict
the injury is
the traditional delivery system of air, land, or sea transportation, or the
cutting-edge
technological system of cyberspace, satellites, cable, and electro-magnetic
waves.

...Pavlovich cannot claim innocent intent. As a computer engineering
student, a
technician in the computer and telecommunications industry, a founder and
president of a
technology start-up company, and a leader in the open source movement,
Pavlovich
knew, or should have known, that by posting the misappropriated information
on the
Internet, he was making the information available to a wide range of
Internet users and
consumers throughout the Internet world, including users and consumers in
California.
Accordingly, there is sufficient showing of purposeful availment within
the....

[...]

~Aimee