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Yes, you're right: Jon Johansen never was a saint. No one in their right mind asked him to be one. He was a 15 year old script kiddie when DeCSS was written. He preferred FreeBSD to Linux (maybe without any rational reason), but that's not the case, and it never was. He might have violated the GPL, and then - he might not (search for "special licence"). That's also beside the point in this case.

Whether the defendant is a good guy or a bad guy should be irrelevant in any legal case in a civilized state. It shouldn't matter. It's just not relevant. Bring him to trial for infringement of the GPL instead, or for not being a good poster boy. It's still irrelevant to this case. You're not a good poster boy yourself for free software, and neither am I, Stalin, Hitler, GWB, Saddam Hussein or Mother Theresa. It's hardly illegal.

Of course, if his motives were to pirate films (which I doubt - why would he post to the LiVid mailing lists then?), he could be judged for contributing to copyright infringement. But he has contributed to developement of free DVD players for Linux, QNX, Windows, *BSD, BeOS, etc., just by releasing the source. Breaking the CSS algorithm was the most important thing about DeCSS. Today it's just an old-fashioned prototype to libdvdcss, used in most free DVD players. And by the way, Jon Johansen has contributed to such players. (Just search for his last name on that page.)

The point is: the priciple of DeCSS is important to the developement of free DVD software. Without DeCSS, no libdvdcss: no xine, no MPlayer, no Ogle, no VideoLAN. We need to break the encryption to read DVD's. And we need the right to do so.

I really wish that article submitters would not put ambiguous links in the
article.

Seriously, though, would it be too much effort to say "three Kahn titles: Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3"? As it is, it's annoying because you have no idea where each of the three links points. Come on, editors, you can do better than this.

People

Richard Stallman -
Eric S. Raymond -
Larry Wall

Linux Programming

Unix

Programming Methodologies

C Programming

C++ Programming

Perl Programming

Network Programming

Open Source

It is official; netsplit.de confirms: OPN is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered OPN community when netsplit.de confirmed that OPN market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. This news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. OPN is collapsing in complete disarray.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict OPN's future. The hand writing is on the wall: OPN faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for OPN because OPN is dying. Things are looking very bad for OPN. As many of us are already aware, OPN continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

In the past month, OPN has lost 3 servers. With the current count of 29 servers, it will logically be 9 months until there are no servers remaining at all. Obviously, the network will probably survive slightly longer than this; it may even drag on for a whole extra year, crawling along like an undead corpse.

Network operator lilo also faces a bleak future. With his rapidly deteriorating financial situation and crucial position to the running and future of the network, it is only a matter of weeks before he is forced to leave and OPN descends into anarchy and chaos without a leader.

Fact: OPN is dying

It is official; netsplit.de confirms: OPN is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered OPN community when netsplit.de confirmed that OPN market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. This news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. OPN is collapsing in complete disarray.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict OPN's future. The hand writing is on the wall: OPN faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for OPN because OPN is dying. Things are looking very bad for OPN. As many of us are already aware, OPN continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

In the past month, OPN has lost 3 servers. With the current count of 29 servers, it will logically be 9 months until there are no servers remaining at all. Obviously, the network will probably survive slightly longer than this; it may even drag on for a whole extra year, crawling along like an undead corpse.

Network operator lilo also faces a bleak future. With his rapidly deteriorating financial situation and crucial position to the running and future of the network, it is only a matter of weeks before he is forced to leave and OPN descends into anarchy and chaos without a leader.

Fact: OPN is dying

It is official; netsplit.de confirms: OPN is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered OPN community when nets
plit.de confirmed that OPN market share has dropped yet again, now down to less
than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. This news serves to reinforce what
we've known all along. OPN is collapsing in complete disarray.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict OPN's future. The hand writing is on t
he wall: OPN faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for
OPN because OPN is dying. Things are looking very bad for OPN. As many of us are
already aware, OPN continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river o
f blood.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

In the past month, OPN has lost 3 servers. With the current count of 29 servers,
it will logically be 9 months until there are no servers remaining at all. Obvi
ously, the network will probably survive slightly longer than this; it may even
drag on for a whole extra year, crawling along like an undead corpse.

Network operator lilo also faces a bleak future. With his rapidly deteriorating
financial situation and crucial position to the running and future of the networ
k, it is only a matter of weeks before he is forced to leave and OPN descends in
to anarchy and chaos without a leader.

Fact: OPN is dying

It is official; netsplit.de confirms: OPN is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered OPN community when netsplit.de confirmed that OPN market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. This news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. OPN is collapsing in complete disarray.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict OPN's future. The hand writing is on the wall: OPN faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for OPN because OPN is dying. Things are looking very bad for OPN. As many of us are already aware, OPN continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

In the past month, OPN has lost 3 servers. With the current count of 29 servers, it will logically be 9 months until there are no servers remaining at all. Obviously, the network will probably survive slightly longer than this; it may even drag on for a whole extra year, crawling along like an undead corpse.

Network operator lilo also faces a bleak future. With his rapidly deteriorating financial situation and crucial position to the running and future of the network, it is only a matter of weeks before he is forced to leave and OPN descends into anarchy and chaos without a leader.

Fact: OPN is dying

From #debian-ia64 on irc.openprojects.net:

Topic for #debian-ia64 is 95.70% up-to-date, 96.07% if also counting uploaded pkgs

There are over 8000 packages for i386 (the most up to date architecture) - ia64 currently has about 7650 or so packages built

More stats are available at buildd.debian.org/stats/

I can remember krow (aka Brian Aker) tell me in IRC about how he setup apache2 to just server images. Like the most simple thing you can do. It requires no special threading, or proces modes, just http1.1. At most, they can do geographic ad targeting with revers DNS lookups tied to the image servers. Blah... still not that special, but at least they can say they run apache2. I have also read where he claims apache2 is't ready for prime time. This is very telling, not because he is senior Slashdot developer, but more because he is known best for his apache 1.3 modules, such as mod_mp3, or mod_layout.

Quakeforge, a project improving the original quake, already has the quake2 source in CVS.. you can find them in #quakeforge on OPN.

I did some work on quakeforge a while back, did some cool things.. but I've moved on, however.. myself and others have come back, although I may or may not make any changes.. as I am busy with some other small project at the moment.

Thanks to Rob Levin (lilo) of openprojects for inspiring the formation of several new irc networks. With masters like lilo to guide the IRC world to new levels of hospitality and `niceness' as well as governmental legitimacy through incorporation, and in turn, solving the age old problem of how to pay for all the necessary expenses incurred in day to day operations, the IRC world has truely never been in a better state. Sure a few servers will always be de-linking, but there's always someone ready to pick up the torch and keep on.

What can I say? Yes please!. I'm not a developer, but I did contribute screenshots .

The developers are fairly active on #freeciv on Openprojects so drop past. You can probably guess my nick. :-)

To take a page out of OPN guidelines for catalysts:

"Catalysts try to resolve problems, not through the use of authority and special privilege, but by fostering consensus, gently nudging participants in the direction of more appropriate behaviour and by generally reducing the level of confrontation rather than confronting users with problems... An important characteristic of successful catalysts is the infrequency with which they wear authority or invoke special privilege."

Catalysts will always endeavour to take the time to carefully explain to someone how they are out of line with channel guidelines and mediate between opposing parties before using privileges are a last resort When possible, one catalyst will consult with another before this stage is even reached.

We try not to let our own personal emotions or beliefs get in the way of channel administration. Our role isn't to control the discussion by kicking out people who are 'on the other side of the fence' (and thus cause envy), but to keep channels calm and keep them public by members of the open source community and the public.

If you do have a legitimate complaint against an catalyst in future, what I suggest you do is approach the other catalysts within that channel [/msg chanserv access #channel list]. Most are appointed and dismissed by the consensus of a majority of other catalysts within a channel. If your complaint is legitimate, then other catalysts will reprimand him/her and may revoke their access if necessary in future. If you are still unsatisfied, then you may take it to higher levels such as those within the #openprojects for reconciliation.

OPN does not take lightly to access abuse as action such as what you have described would be very detrimental to the reputation of the OPN community as a whole. OPN is there to "provide an interactive environment for free software and open source projects and support groups", and we will always try to make everyone feel like they can be a welcome part of this community.

To take a page out of OPN guidelines for catalysts:

"Catalysts try to resolve problems, not through the use of authority and special privilege, but by fostering consensus, gently nudging participants in the direction of more appropriate behaviour and by generally reducing the level of confrontation rather than confronting users with problems... An important characteristic of successful catalysts is the infrequency with which they wear authority or invoke special privilege."

Catalysts will always endeavour to take the time to carefully explain to someone how they are out of line with channel guidelines and mediate between opposing parties before using privileges are a last resort When possible, one catalyst will consult with another before this stage is even reached.

We try not to let our own personal emotions or beliefs get in the way of channel administration. Our role isn't to control the discussion by kicking out people who are 'on the other side of the fence' (and thus cause envy), but to keep channels calm and keep them public by members of the open source community and the public.

If you do have a legitimate complaint against an catalyst in future, what I suggest you do is approach the other catalysts within that channel [/msg chanserv access #channel list]. Most are appointed and dismissed by the consensus of a majority of other catalysts within a channel. If your complaint is legitimate, then other catalysts will reprimand him/her and may revoke their access if necessary in future. If you are still unsatisfied, then you may take it to higher levels such as those within the #openprojects for reconciliation.

OPN does not take lightly to access abuse as action such as what you have described would be very detrimental to the reputation of the OPN community as a whole. OPN is there to "provide an interactive environment for free software and open source projects and support groups", and we will always try to make everyone feel like they can be a welcome part of this community.

Yeah, I agree completely. I run Open Source Web Design, it's made almost completely by the users. Hosting is provided by Trae and our IRC channel is on Open Projects. We'd never ever do a subscription service. We don't provide anything except some programming talent and design moderation. And all we get from it is a warm fuzzy feeling. We're stuck with banner ads or donations. We'd give up before switching to subscription.

It's nice to see the portability of Linux demonstrated. And you can use it to really freak out some non-Linux people.

But has this any practical use? ...The Dreamcast community has created tools that are far better suited ...

When Karl Kalleberg and myself started the port at LinuxDC (yes, not the same as the originial .jp port, for reasons I won't go into, but we're all friends now :P), the idea was to provide an embedded Linux system as an alternative for the hobbyist Dreamcast developers instead of the plucky toolkits (libdream, KOS, etc.) that were available. LinuxDC is *designed* to go as close to the metal as possible.

I'm still doing DC kernel hacking, check out the Task Manager on the SF project page for info on what's currently being worked on.

Really, it's a nice hack.

If there are true kernel hackers, people interested in porting apps, testers, or people who are serious about tinkering with embedded Linux development feel free to stop by linuxdc.org. The developers are usually on #linuxdc on irc.openprojects.net.

Have fun, and thanks goes to Bill for the well-written article :P.

M. R.

Now, the entire reason why I'm responding is because I have friends who work for a effects company (They did stuff for AI, Shrek, Antz, etc). Now, they are a good company. Fun atmosphere, and guess what? A lot of the employees IRC on OpenProjects.Net. Now.. yes, they may get money from a source that is in opposition to the open source movement but guess what? If you work for a company so do you. If your company has one windows license, then you too are an evil entity in an evil empire trying to conquer the open source movement and spread ill-written consumer-attacking licenses throughout the world! Stop now before it's too late!

Oh wait, that's absurd. So is your argument. They aren't in an employer/employee relationship. They are in a contract. Worlds different. If a visual effect company wants to use Linux+SGI+IBM but their client goes "No, we want you to redo your setup in Windows" you think they'll do it? Hell no. It must be hard thinking everyone is against you, huh?

Yup, seeking monetary contributions for an IRC network is a pretty hard sell. But before you dismiss the thought out of hand look at what we are doing and the philosophy behind our approach. We are here to help people communicate, and some fairly well-known projects, such as Debian GNU/Linux, Jabber, handhelds.org, PocketLinux and Vorbis, find us quite useful. So if someone wants to know whether we can make a case that they should contribute or code for us, well, I think we can make quite a strong one.

Thanks,

Rob L.

Yup, seeking monetary contributions for an IRC network is a pretty hard sell. But before you dismiss the thought out of hand look at what we are doing and the philosophy behind our approach. We are here to help people communicate, and some fairly well-known projects, such as Debian GNU/Linux, Jabber, handhelds.org, PocketLinux and Vorbis, find us quite useful. So if someone wants to know whether we can make a case that they should contribute or code for us, well, I think we can make quite a strong one.

Thanks,

Rob L.

Yup, seeking monetary contributions for an IRC network is a pretty hard sell. But before you dismiss the thought out of hand look at what we are doing and the philosophy behind our approach. We are here to help people communicate, and some fairly well-known projects, such as Debian GNU/Linux, Jabber, handhelds.org, PocketLinux and Vorbis, find us quite useful. So if someone wants to know whether we can make a case that they should contribute or code for us, well, I think we can make quite a strong one.

Thanks,

Rob L.

Yup, seeking monetary contributions for an IRC network is a pretty hard sell. But before you dismiss the thought out of hand look at what we are doing and the philosophy behind our approach. We are here to help people communicate, and some fairly well-known projects, such as Debian GNU/Linux, Jabber, handhelds.org, PocketLinux and Vorbis, find us quite useful. So if someone wants to know whether we can make a case that they should contribute or code for us, well, I think we can make quite a strong one.

Thanks,

Rob L.

You're right that the hostname and IP should probably be hidden, it's on our TODO list. Though it will take some work to do that without causing inconvenience to the users. Uh, by the way, we need a bit of help finishing those patches from people with time on their hands, the urge to contribute, and hybrid-6 experience. :) Anybody who is interested, please check the site....

Thanks,

Rob L.

I think it is important to understand, that we ar enot trying to copy nor be a competition to the big news site.
We do nto have any interest in generating a fast revenue, we simply wish to build a news interface to the community,
which has actually been developed and is maintained by the community.
That is why we do nto have any paid staff, ourt staff will be made up from volunteers, everybody is free to sign up as a volunteer at this form.
We are also open for discussion as to how this site should be developed and what features should be included, that is why we introduced the mailing list.
Commonly a site is developed and then presented to the users, after a big team of analysts has skimmed the market indirectly for their wishes.
We wish to be active and not passive by asking you before the site is developed, so you may help its development along.

Hopefully that lcears up a bit of the confusion you were left with.
Please do not hesitate to visit me online if you have further questions.
dmalloc();
ps excuse the many typoes, my phone is ringing like crazy but I wish to keep up to date on comments.

I think it is important to understand, that we ar enot trying to copy nor be a competition to the big news site.
We do nto have any interest in generating a fast revenue, we simply wish to build a news interface to the community,
which has actually been developed and is maintained by the community.
That is why we do nto have any paid staff, ourt staff will be made up from volunteers, everybody is free to sign up as a volunteer at this form.
We are also open for discussion as to how this site should be developed and what features should be included, that is why we introduced the mailing list.
Commonly a site is developed and then presented to the users, after a big team of analysts has skimmed the market indirectly for their wishes.
We wish to be active and not passive by asking you before the site is developed, so you may help its development along.

Hopefully that lcears up a bit of the confusion you were left with.
Please do not hesitate to visit me online if you have further questions.
dmalloc();
ps excuse the many typoes, my phone is ringing like crazy but I wish to keep up to date on comments.

This is Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau from the MashPotato/B> Project,currently being hosted at LinuxGiant until Raja is well enough to move it over to SourceForge, who is hosting our project. Thanks semis for getting the post in early. Most of the crew are volunteers from the official #debian IRC channel at irc.debian.org. MashPotato's aim is to provide all users of Debian with comprehensive live IRC support and an ongoing website. Over the upcoming months, the MashPotato site will be loaded with the latest tips, guides and Debian news, but currently our priority is to help out new and old Debian GNU/Linux users getting a hang of Potato and Woody as well.
Here's an excerpt from a post that was made on the Debian-user mailing list:

We here at #debian, the official IRC channel of Debian have decided that when Potato 2.2 does officially become stable, that we will provide the most comprehensive Debian GNU/Linux support service that we can to users both new and old. However, being the official IRC room, #debian will be overwhelmed with literally hundreds of users seeking installation and configuration help. The task would be quite daunting for regulars there as we already handle several dozen help requests a day.
Hence, the Potato release now has a dedicated IRC tech support crew nicknamed the Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato (MashPotato) which serve around the clock for users around the world. To make things easier, we will also divert users to different channels from #debian to for example #mashpotato and #mashpotato-X, #mashpotato-sound, #mashpotato-gnome. However, we will be lacking in numbers of people to answer the multitudes of help. To sign up for the roster list for MashPotato, just come into #debian and type in "apt roster" for further details, and return over the next few days for more details. You don't need to be using Potato, but any Debian-based help provided will be greatly appreciated.

So if you've got any troubles whatsoever with Debian GNU/Linux, Potato or Woody, then hop into #debian or #mashpotato hosted on any IRC server that's part of the OpenProject IRC Network> and we'll be glad to help you.

MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato

- irresponsibly sensationalized an innocent effort to get DVDs running under Linux into a Grand Piracy Conspiracy against the MPAA/DVD Forum, against all evidence and contrary to reality
- made the situation worse with followups equally inaccurate
[ real people are suffering real problems as a result, with colassal financial loss looming, not to mention possible criminal charges which, while they are innocent (at least in intent, though perhaps not on a technicality as the laws have been so severely revamped in favor of the MPAA in the last couple of years, at least in the US and UK), will probably devistate them financially to defend against. ]
- a refusal to take responsibility for your own shoddy work, blaming instead the victims for not wanting to talk to you, or not talking to you in a timely enough manner to meet your schedule, or a short deadline. While these may have contributed, you are the one who went with the story as is, knowing you didn't have the full
[ one 15 year old developer has already informed you on this list that he was in school at the time and unable to get, much less respond to, your requests before your ran your story ]
- an arrogant, unrepented, and calous attitude, where you appear to be more concerned with the (remarkably mild) flames you have received here, yet show little or no concern to the lives you've helped to throw into disarray through the inaccurate stories that were run

I would imagine if I were one directly affected, my perspective of your behavior would be even less flattering.

I think the original writer read too much into Jamie's posting the link. But, frankly, I understand the reaction.

- irresponsibly sensationalized an innocent effort to get DVDs running under Linux into a Grand Piracy Conspiracy against the MPAA/DVD Forum, against all evidence and contrary to reality
- made the situation worse with followups equally inaccurate
[ real people are suffering real problems as a result, with colassal financial loss looming, not to mention possible criminal charges which, while they are innocent (at least in intent, though perhaps not on a technicality as the laws have been so severely revamped in favor of the MPAA in the last couple of years, at least in the US and UK), will probably devistate them financially to defend against. ]
- a refusal to take responsibility for your own shoddy work, blaming instead the victims for not wanting to talk to you, or not talking to you in a timely enough manner to meet your schedule, or a short deadline. While these may have contributed, you are the one who went with the story as is, knowing you didn't have the full
[ one 15 year old developer has already informed you on this list that he was in school at the time and unable to get, much less respond to, your requests before your ran your story ]
- an arrogant, unrepented, and calous attitude, where you appear to be more concerned with the (remarkably mild) flames you have received here, yet show little or no concern to the lives you've helped to throw into disarray through the inaccurate stories that were run

I would imagine if I were one directly affected, my perspective of your behavior would be even less flattering.

I think the original writer read too much into Jamie's posting the link. But, frankly, I understand the reaction.

He may have some interesting things to say, but it looks like he didn't make many
friends on the livid-dev list. Search for his name in the list archives (for example see
here , here , here , or here ).

He may have some interesting things to say, but it looks like he didn't make many
friends on the livid-dev list. Search for his name in the list archives (for example see
here , here , here , or here ).

He may have some interesting things to say, but it looks like he didn't make many
friends on the livid-dev list. Search for his name in the list archives (for example see
here , here , here , or here ).

He may have some interesting things to say, but it looks like he didn't make many
friends on the livid-dev list. Search for his name in the list archives (for example see
here , here , here , or here ).

He may have some interesting things to say, but it looks like he didn't make many
friends on the livid-dev list. Search for his name in the list archives (for example see
here , here , here , or here ).

You're quoted on the LiViD site as saying:

"I'm pretty sure that I will do everything to avoid the media in the future, but if I'm forced to talk with them, I'll have to get them to sign an agreement."

In reading your interviews, I've been continually impressed by your poise and intelligence in dealing with the media. Certainly, the mainstream media have distorted this story even more than most technical stories, but your efforts to get the correct information out have been laudable. You've certainly done a lot better than I could imagine myself doing at 16. Are you certain you want to avoid the media when you have such potential as a spokesman?

but, in the LinuxWorld article, at the end, you say...
"ABC News is coming tomorrow, and I was supposed to demonstrate DVD playback under Linux. So I'm going to call some people now and try to get hold of a computer with a DVD-ROM and get Linux installed on it."

Again, why should anyone care what happens to you, when the origional release was for windows, for pirating, and had nothing to do with breaking a legal "monopoly".

As co-maintainer of the comp.ai FAQ, I've come across a number of different open-source speech-recognition products.

The ISIS group at Mississippi State have a DARPA grant to create a fully public domain speech recognition system. A pre-alpha version of the software is available from: this site.

A student in Quebec is also working on a speech recognition system, although it seems as if only some basic signal processing stuff is done at this point. Follow this link for more information.

I just found this (from the livid-dev mailing list archive). It explains how DeCSS was done and by whom, as well as Jons involvement.

Please have a look at it. It clears up a couple of things...

Here are the facts.

The entire livid-dev archive needs to be introduced into the record of every court proceeding touching this case. It's a clear record of a group of people collaborating - not to pirate or defraud the movie industry, but to develop some software to play DVDs that they'd legally purchased.

Some terrific quotes from the archive:

Jon Johansen on his reasons for DeCSS

"I know you've all waited a long time for this moment [when you'll be able to watch decrypted dvds]..." (Brackets are literal, not a partial paraphrase on my part) "...If I could just get some hollywood plus drivers for linux, I would probably be setting up my own linux machine in the living room :P"

The legal issues, months before anybody sued anybody

"These rippers are not illegal providing they were developed without illegal access to the DVD specs, nor would opening up the source to them be illegal. (Note that the ONLY illegal access to the DVD documents is if you obtain the documents by deception, or you sign the NDA and then break it. If you find a copy of the specs in the street you can do whatever you want with them - including revealing them to other parties.) In most jurisdictions reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability is perfectly legal. There are perfectly legal uses for these DVD rippers too - backing up DVDs you own is perfectly legal, whatever the DVD consortium might say."

A fairly clear statement of intent from a list member:

"I just want to view the video, not to copy it."

"The purpose of reverse-engineering it *IS* compatability. Compatability with Linux."

Here are the facts.

The entire livid-dev archive needs to be introduced into the record of every court proceeding touching this case. It's a clear record of a group of people collaborating - not to pirate or defraud the movie industry, but to develop some software to play DVDs that they'd legally purchased.

Some terrific quotes from the archive:

Jon Johansen on his reasons for DeCSS

"I know you've all waited a long time for this moment [when you'll be able to watch decrypted dvds]..." (Brackets are literal, not a partial paraphrase on my part) "...If I could just get some hollywood plus drivers for linux, I would probably be setting up my own linux machine in the living room :P"

The legal issues, months before anybody sued anybody

"These rippers are not illegal providing they were developed without illegal access to the DVD specs, nor would opening up the source to them be illegal. (Note that the ONLY illegal access to the DVD documents is if you obtain the documents by deception, or you sign the NDA and then break it. If you find a copy of the specs in the street you can do whatever you want with them - including revealing them to other parties.) In most jurisdictions reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability is perfectly legal. There are perfectly legal uses for these DVD rippers too - backing up DVDs you own is perfectly legal, whatever the DVD consortium might say."

A fairly clear statement of intent from a list member:

"I just want to view the video, not to copy it."

"The purpose of reverse-engineering it *IS* compatability. Compatability with Linux."

Here are the facts.

The entire livid-dev archive needs to be introduced into the record of every court proceeding touching this case. It's a clear record of a group of people collaborating - not to pirate or defraud the movie industry, but to develop some software to play DVDs that they'd legally purchased.

Some terrific quotes from the archive:

Jon Johansen on his reasons for DeCSS

"I know you've all waited a long time for this moment [when you'll be able to watch decrypted dvds]..." (Brackets are literal, not a partial paraphrase on my part) "...If I could just get some hollywood plus drivers for linux, I would probably be setting up my own linux machine in the living room :P"

The legal issues, months before anybody sued anybody

"These rippers are not illegal providing they were developed without illegal access to the DVD specs, nor would opening up the source to them be illegal. (Note that the ONLY illegal access to the DVD documents is if you obtain the documents by deception, or you sign the NDA and then break it. If you find a copy of the specs in the street you can do whatever you want with them - including revealing them to other parties.) In most jurisdictions reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability is perfectly legal. There are perfectly legal uses for these DVD rippers too - backing up DVDs you own is perfectly legal, whatever the DVD consortium might say."

A fairly clear statement of intent from a list member:

"I just want to view the video, not to copy it."

"The purpose of reverse-engineering it *IS* compatability. Compatability with Linux."

Here are the facts.

The entire livid-dev archive needs to be introduced into the record of every court proceeding touching this case. It's a clear record of a group of people collaborating - not to pirate or defraud the movie industry, but to develop some software to play DVDs that they'd legally purchased.

Some terrific quotes from the archive:

Jon Johansen on his reasons for DeCSS

"I know you've all waited a long time for this moment [when you'll be able to watch decrypted dvds]..." (Brackets are literal, not a partial paraphrase on my part) "...If I could just get some hollywood plus drivers for linux, I would probably be setting up my own linux machine in the living room :P"

The legal issues, months before anybody sued anybody

"These rippers are not illegal providing they were developed without illegal access to the DVD specs, nor would opening up the source to them be illegal. (Note that the ONLY illegal access to the DVD documents is if you obtain the documents by deception, or you sign the NDA and then break it. If you find a copy of the specs in the street you can do whatever you want with them - including revealing them to other parties.) In most jurisdictions reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability is perfectly legal. There are perfectly legal uses for these DVD rippers too - backing up DVDs you own is perfectly legal, whatever the DVD consortium might say."

A fairly clear statement of intent from a list member:

"I just want to view the video, not to copy it."

"The purpose of reverse-engineering it *IS* compatability. Compatability with Linux."

Here are the facts.

The entire livid-dev archive needs to be introduced into the record of every court proceeding touching this case. It's a clear record of a group of people collaborating - not to pirate or defraud the movie industry, but to develop some software to play DVDs that they'd legally purchased.

Some terrific quotes from the archive:

Jon Johansen on his reasons for DeCSS

"I know you've all waited a long time for this moment [when you'll be able to watch decrypted dvds]..." (Brackets are literal, not a partial paraphrase on my part) "...If I could just get some hollywood plus drivers for linux, I would probably be setting up my own linux machine in the living room :P"

The legal issues, months before anybody sued anybody

"These rippers are not illegal providing they were developed without illegal access to the DVD specs, nor would opening up the source to them be illegal. (Note that the ONLY illegal access to the DVD documents is if you obtain the documents by deception, or you sign the NDA and then break it. If you find a copy of the specs in the street you can do whatever you want with them - including revealing them to other parties.) In most jurisdictions reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability is perfectly legal. There are perfectly legal uses for these DVD rippers too - backing up DVDs you own is perfectly legal, whatever the DVD consortium might say."

A fairly clear statement of intent from a list member:

"I just want to view the video, not to copy it."

"The purpose of reverse-engineering it *IS* compatability. Compatability with Linux."

First, here is teh correct link to the old LiViD article.

Norwegian law firm Simonsen & Musaeus said it had reported Johansen and his father to the police on behalf of the Motion Picture Association (MBA)

We should make this Law firm pay for using these tactics! We must contact there customers and complain about Simonsen & Musaeus's actions (you can mail them at simonsen.musaeus@simu.no to tell them you are contacting there customers; they have a list of partners with email addresses here). I will be tring to identify their customers and posting links so ypou can all email them, but please look yourself if you know more about how to find their customers.

Ok, I guess I should start with some information. Here is a list of the firms partners if you want to send them mail discussing there abuse of the legal system: asmund@simu.no, g.heiberg.simonsen@simu.no, l.musaeus@simu.no, jsh@simu.no, knut.boye@simu.no, sindre.walderhaug@simu.no, pk@simu.no, p.hartz.hanssen@simu.no, etondel@simu.no, spoppegaard@simu.no, msovik@simu.no, einar.amundsen@simu.no, c.r.flinder@simu.no, mos@simu.no, a.steen@simu.no, p.seime@simu.no, a.os@simu.no, k.woldseth@simu.no, jsegseth@simu.no, c.eriksen@simu.no, s.benestad@simu.no, h.ovrebo@simu.no, c.glommen@simu.no, o.rieck@simu.no, e.hoiby@simu.no, ik@simu.no, e.huitfeldt@simu.no, k.f.jensen@simu.no

I suppose one thing we could do is send convincing letters to these people regarding the dispicable legal tactics of their company.

Jeff

BTW> There are other people involved in this who we should take action against too (discussed here).

Norwegian law firm Simonsen & Musaeus said it had reported Johansen and his father to the police on behalf of the Motion Picture Association (MBA), a lobby group for seven major Hollywood studios.

Here's an old Livi d-dev article from Johansen which mentions that law firm.

Nah. Matrox currently has the best linux hardware. Matrox G400 MAX. Nice. Jon Carmack likes 'em.

here

Mirrors since 28-Dec-99 added by me.
To my main DVD page (containing list of lists of mirrors) Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.
If you need a REAL reason to host these files, try reading this. Truth has never been more purely distilled.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Fri, Dec 31, 8:18pm EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

1. http://www.humpin.org/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.humpin.org/decss/decss.tar.gz
   
   
2. http://www.2600.com/news/1999/11 12-files/DeCSS.zip/ and http://www.2600.com/news/1 999/1112-files/css-auth.tar.gz
   
3. http://douglas.min.net/~drw/css-auth/
   
4. http://www.devzero.org/freecss.html
   
5. http://www.chello.nl/~f .vanwaveren/css-auth/css-auth.tar.gz
   
6. http://www.geociti es.com/ResearchTriangle/Campus/8877/index.html
   
7. http://www.angelfire.com/mt/popefelix/
8. http://www.vexed.net/CSS
   
9. http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~j.vr eeken/
   
10. http://www.dvd.eavy.de/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.dvd.eavy.de/DeCSS.zip
    
11. http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/css-aut h.tar.gz and http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/DeCSS.zip
    
12. http://frozenlinux.com/local/decss/in dex.html
    
13. http://www.unitycode.org/
    
14. http://dirtass.beyatch.net/decss.zip
    
15. http://decss.tripod.com/index.html
    
16. http://www.free-dvd.org.lu/
    
17. http://www.angelfire.com/in2/mirror/
    
18. http://batman.jytol.fi/~vuori/dvd/
    
19. http://www.zpok.demon.co.uk/deCSS/CSS.ht ml
    
20. http://plato.nebulanet.net:88/css/
    
21. http://www.logorrhea.com/main.html
    
22. http://people.delphi.com/salfter/LiVi d.tar.gz
    
23. ftp://193.219.56.32/pub/dvd/LiVi d.CVS-11.06.tar.gz and ftp://193.219.56. 32/pub/dvd/LiVid.CVS-11.06.css-stuff-only.tar.gz
    
24. http://merlin.keble.ox.ac.uk/~a drian/css/index.html
    
25. http://www.dvd-copy.com/
    
26. http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css /css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css/DeCSS .zip
    
27. http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/css -auth.tar.gz and http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/DeCSS.zip
    
28. http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/jvz/
    
29. http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/
    
30. http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderm an/dvd.htm
    
31. http://remco.xgov.net/dvd/
    
32. ftp://dvd:dvd@206.98.63.136
    
33. http://www.twistedlogic.com/htm l/tl_archive_map.htm
    
34. http://mu nitions.vipul.net/software/algorithms/streamcipher s/decss.tar.gz
    
35. http:/ /munitions.polkaroo.net/software/algorithms/stream ciphers/decss.tar.gz
    
36. http://muni tions.dyn.org/software/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz
    
37. http://uk1. munitions.net/software/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz
    
38. http://134.100.185.221/decss/
    
39. http://muni tions.firenze.linux.it/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz
    
40. http://www.tasam.com/~fenkt/dvd/
    
41. http://therapy.endorphin.org/DVD/
    
42. http://killer.discordia.ch /Politics/Copyprotection.phtml
    
43. http://livid.on.openprojects.net
    
44. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconV alley/Port/3224/
    
45. ftp://ftp.one.net/pub/user s/dmahurin/files/software/dvd/
    
46. ftp://ftp.charm.net/pub/usr/home/dutch/ or http://www.charm.net/~dutch/
    
47. http://dsl129.drizzle.com:2001/downlo ads/DVD/
    
48. http://perso.libertysurf. fr/ortal98/dvd_rip/decss_12b.zip
49. http://users.drak.net/bem ann/software/css/css-auth.tar.gz and http://users.drak.net/bemann/so ftware/css/DeCSS.zip
    
50. http://www.angelfire.com/movies/decss
    
51. http://members.tripod.co.uk/bap/css/cs s.html
    
52. http://www.angelfire.com/myband/decss/
53. http://josefine.ben.tuwien.ac.at/~davi d/dvd/
    
54. http://www.c0ke.com/DVD/
    
55. http://rockme.virtualave.net/
    
56. http://amor.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444t2v/
57. http://www.quintessenz.at/q/index.html
58. http://www.dvdlinks.co.uk/css/
    
59. http://www.fortunecit y.com/tinpan/tylerbridge/679/dvdcss.html
    
60. http://www.crosswinds.net/~valo/DeCSS/
61. http://members.home.com/christopherlee/ dvd/
    
62. http://members.xoom.com/freedecss/
    
63. http://63.225.181.97/decss/
    
64. ftp://alma.dhs.org/pub/DVD/
    
65. http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/DeCSS.zip and http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/css -auth.tar.gz
    
66. http://mun itions.cifs.org/software/algorithms/streamciphers/ decss.tar.gz
    
67. http://www.able-towers.com/~flow/
    
68. http://www.cgocable.net/~jdionne/css/
    
69. http://people.mn.mediaone.net/bojay/s lashdot/
    
70. http://www.capital.net/~mazzic
    
71. http://24.108.23.121/DeCSS/
    
72. http://ananke.hack.pl/
    
73. http://www.geocities.com/donotsueme/
    
74. http://members.tripod.com/donotsueme/
    
75. http://donotsueme.homepage.com
    
76. http://www.homestead.com/donotsueme/ index.html
    
77. http://donotsueme.freeservers.com/
    
78. http://www.angelfire.com/punk/donotsueme/
    
79. http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~marsie/
    
80. http://209.178.22.9/protest/
    
81. http://www.bard.org.il/~marc/dvd
    
82. http://www.geocities.com/RainFor est/4360/decss.zip
    
83. http://www.altern.com/tfagart/decss.zip
    
84. http://www.itouch.net/~jm/dvd.html
    
85. http://ils.unc.edu/inls183/resources .shtml#DVD
    
86. http://avdira.cc.duth.gr/~kkonstan/css/
    
87. http://www.multimania.com/sxpert/decss/
    
88. http://www.posexperts.com.pl/peopl e/wrobell/css/
    
89. http://www.koek.net/dvd/
    
90. http://www.cyberchrist.org/freecss.html
    
91. http://www.ozemail.com.au/~cybe rchrist/freecss.html
    
92. http://www.planet.net.au/~coram/
    
93. http://www.geek.co.il/css/
    
94. http://www.datacomm.ch/adrien/decss/ index.html
    
95. http://home.rmci.net/bert/fuckthelawyers/
    
96. http://unimatrix.dyndns.org/fucklawyers/
    
97. http://www.isn.net/~dsimeone/DeCSS.zip
98. http://logical-solutions.com.au/DeCSS.zip
    
99. http://www.sarahandcasey.com/decss/
    
100. http://www.fsp.com/
     
101. http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~echerry/dvd
     
102. http://www.mafkees.com/dvd
     
103. http://dB.org/dvd/
     
104. http://dcwi.com/~wench/decss
     
105. http://dvdcss.newmail.ru
     
106. http://www.subcor.com
     
107. http://www.frankw.net/decss
     
108. http://danger-island.com/~dav/any.lawyer.who/quote s.this.url/gives.permission/for .his.residence.to.be.searched/any.bootleg.audio/vi deo/tape.found/nullifies.legal.and.moral .standing/
     
109. http://www.fortunecity.com/vi ctorian/parkwood/95/DVD/
     
110. http://www.asleep.net/dvd
     
111. http://members.xoom.com/NiKeX
     
112. http://www.geocit ies.com/ResearchTriangle/Station/2819/index.html
     
113. http://www.execpc.com/~unicorn/dvdmirr or.htm
     
114. http://members.xoom.com/chapter3/Mamma No.htm
     
115. http://wiw.org/~drz/css/
     
116. http://merlinjim.freeservers.com/dvd/
     
117. http://www.visi.com/~adept/liberty
     
118. http://mikedotd.penguinpowered.com/deccs
     
119. http://www.ct2600.org/2600-DVD.html
     
120. http://magic.hurrah.com/~fireball/dvd/
121. http://www.jonhanson.com/dvd
     
122. ftp://ftp.foon.net/pub/decss
     
123. http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/css/
     
124. http://earnestdesigns.com/dvd
     
125. http://www.satl.com/~satlpop6/
     
126. http://xempt.darpa.org:81/decss/
     
127. ftp://cm-d0415.resnet.ucsc.edu/p ub/css-auth.tar.gz
     
128. http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user /mycroft/css-auth/
     
129. http://www.eyrie.demon.co.uk/derek/dvd/c ss
     
130. http://ananke.hack.pl
     
131. http://budice.ancients.net/www.free -dvd.org.lu/
     
132. http://defiance.darktech.org/decss/
     
133. http://kesagatame.tripod.com
     
134. http://www.angelfire.com/pokemon/decss
135. http://www.gnosis.cx/download/DeCSS.zip
     
136. http://bone.powersurfr.com/DeCSS/
     
137. http://wakeupthe.net/dvd/
     
138. http://everest.yooniks.org/dvd
     
139. http://cubicmetercrystal.com/decss/
     
140. http://analyzethis.acmecity.com/triboro /90/
     
141. http://homepages.together.net/~ib nzahid/DeCSS.zip
     
142. http://www.save2600.8m.com
     
143. http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dantepsn/
     
144. http://members.xoom.com/mxpxguy/dvd/
     
145. http://decss.fall0ut.com
     
146. http://vedaa.tripod.com/decss.html
     
147. http://members.xoom.com/iox
     
148. http://www.hackunlimited.com/dvd/
     
149. http://hem.fyristorg.com/police/css.htm
     
150. http://elknews.netpedia.net/dvd/
     
151. http://www.idrive.com/decss/web
     
152. http://quintessenz.at/q
     
153. http://www.clug.com/~vodak/dvd/
     
154. http://www.nacs.net/~vodak/dvd/
     
155. http://ny2600.iwarp.com
     
156. http://www.wpi.edu/~nassar/dvd/
     
157. http://www.glue.umd.edu/~castongj
     
158. http://www.geocities.com/cold_dvd/
     
159. http://www.projectgamma.com/deccs/
     
160. http://members.xoom.com/mogreen/decss/
161. http://thrash.webjump.com/decss.zip
     
162. http://www.angelfire.com/de2/decss/dec ss.htm
     
163. http://www.krackdown.com/decss
     
164. http://www.ithink.org/dvd/
     
165. http://www.fortunecit y.com/skyscraper/motorola/1415/decss.htm
     
166. http://chaz.fsgs.com/misc/DvD/
     
167. http://www.linuxstart.com/~kv ance/projects/decss.html
     
168. http://www.darkkingz.com/DeCSS.zip
     
169. http://come.to/intelex
     
170. http://ebmedia.net/dvd/
     
171. http://www.geocities.com/decss_forever/
     
172. http://revolution.3-cities.com/~spack/dv d/
     
173. http://www.geocities.com/Sili conValley/Software/8762/
     
174. http://members.xoom.com/s_o_sam/help.html
     
175. http://smokering.org
     
176. http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/css -auth.tar.gz
     
177. http://dlsf.org
     
178. http://home.rmci.net/bert/dvd
     
179. http://thrash.webjump.com/decss.zip
     
180. http://linux.uci.agh.edu.pl/~outlaw/ decss.html
     
181. http://debian.mps.krakow.pl/mirror/css/
     
182. http://www.fission.org/~mangino
     
183. http://212.187.12.197/decss/
     
184. http://www.clarkson.edu/~andrixjr /decss/DeCSS.zip
     
185. http://www.geocities.com/Capitol Hill/1583/dvd.html
     
186. http://members.xoom.com/freedecss/
     
187. http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/dvd.htm
     
188. http://www.members.home.net/normanlorrai n/
     
189. http://home.swipnet.se/~w-18931/decss/
190. http://home.soneraplaza.nl/qn/prive/v alhalla/
     
191. http://www.robotslave.net
     
192. http://www.angelfire.com/punk/freedom/
193. http://www.corova.com/dvd/
     
194. http://2600.dk/mirrors/css/
     
195. http://dvdcrack.homepage.com
     
196. http://www.copkiller.org
     
197. http://www.worldcity.nl/~frank/dvd
     
198. http://members.xoom.com/iamkeenan/master/
     
199. http://www.adulation.net/css/
     
200. http://homepage.interacces s.com/~mycroft/decss/DeCSS.zip
     
201. http://underground.pl/dvd/
     
202. http://members.xoom.com/nyc2600
     
203. http://zerosoft.hypermart.net/warez/ DVDcrK.txt
     
204. http://www.deforest.org/CSS
     
205. http://nickd.org/decss
     
206. http://www.xenoclast.demon.co.uk/main.ht ml
     
207. http://www.ctol.net/~ross/css-auth.tar.gz
     
208. http://www.xenoclast.demon.co.uk/main.ht ml
     
209. http://www.ctol.net/~ross/css-auth.tar.gz
     
210. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconV alley/File/3635/
     
211. http://members.xoom.com/a1010_2000/
     
212. http://decss.globalservice.hu/
     

Try the utah glx - glx.on.openprojects.net. Get a recent snapshot, Mesa 3.1, and follow the instructions. I had Quake II working with my TNT2, but I messed it up, and now it isn't working again though...

"Hey, if anyone from nvidia is reading, I think it would take all of a single day or two to convert the existing nvidia glx driver to the same pseudo dma / real dma / direct rendering framework we have on the mga driver if some specs were released. It would be nice if we had unified functionality across all three chips, and it would be a major performance boost." http://list s.openprojects.net/pipermail/glx-dev/1999-December /002373.html is the link to the archive page for the message he posted. And he's right about that.

whoops, i meant http://li sts.openprojects.net/pipermail/glx-dev/1999-Decemb er/002373.html

http://li sts.openprojects.net/pipermail/glx-dev/1999-Decemb er/002371.html