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CSS: About Piracy, or About Content Regulation?
Linux Today is running an
opinion piece which
gives an alternative interpretation to the DeCSS saga: CSS is not so much about
preventing piracy or enforcing region codes as it is about protecting the
current content providers from any new competition (thereby also controlling
what you get to know).
If region coding was only about preventing viewing of films before they get to theaters, I wouldn't mind it so much. But if that was the reason, they wouldn't region lock 95+% of all old films on DVD. It's about being able to charge different prices in different parts of the world, or at least that's my guess. That (and the fact that non-region 1 DVDs are often worse quality than region 1 DVDs) is why people remove the region lock. It allows you to buy movies either cheaper, or that just aren't available in the region they are in.
Enabling earlier releases in some parts of the world is just a convenient excuse that happens to hold a grain of truth.
Do you have a reference for the figures of DVD consortium license fees? I'd be *very* interested in such a document.
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Pray tell, why is it not possible then?
It is my understanding that normal cd players
need more reflectivity than a CD-RW provides.
Thats pretty close to not having enough contrast IMHO.
I'd really like to know if there is another reason.
It seems to me that it was originally about preventing piracy, but now it's about CYA...
Now that the major manufacturers know that the "protection scheme" is completely useless, and only impedes the legitimate users of their products, (the other ones have other, better ways to copy / rip DVD's) they have two options.
1) Rail against the MPAA, admit their wrongdoing, and create a new, open spec.
2) Trust the MPAA to protect their interests, and not make them all look like fools.
Which one do you think they'll pick?
If this came to court, and the issue was presented correctly, I'm sure the MPAA would lose, as a free-speech and reverse engineering issue. But when "dangerous hackers" are concerned, the US Legal System turns into a kangaroo court.
I've believed this ever since RTM was unfairly convicted, and I'll believe it until I hear clueful presentation of the issues without that "dangerous hacker" crap tossed around.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I don't see why they should have the right to use technological protections to overstep the protections that copyright law gives them. By using the DMCA, they've managed to secure the right to use technological means, not only to protect the rights that copyright law gives them, but to extend those rights as well.
We've all been hoodwinked by the MPAA lawyers and others who supported the DMCA. Between that and UCITA, we're gonna get screwed good and hard. I, personally, don't give a damn what rights the MPAA thinks it should have. If they want to extend their legitimate rights through technology, then I plan to use technology to take my own rights back.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
What's the point of having the right to reverse engineer something for compatibility purposes if you aren't allowed to bypass some trivial encryption scheme in order to do it? Sounds like the MPAA is trying to make themselves a nice big loophole in the law to get rid of all that pesky fair use stuff.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
It looks like hackers finally asked themselves what they wanted to do with DVDs and the answer was nothing. No-one's breaking down the walls for Linux DVD players. A few students made a hobby in learning how to decode the frames and audio in DVD streams but work on creating a practical DVD player ended a long time ago. The issue is now should we be able to rip DVDs.
"they can't copy it onto DVD and send it to their friends. Or if they can, only within the domestic US, cause its region coded. "
What about Canada? They're region 1 too. Okay, perhaps I'm being nit-picky. The article is just trying to be sensational: saying "domestic" US makes it sound even more restrictive.
Personally I think that regional encoding is ridiculous. From what I understand, DVD's cost more in say the UK, but often come with fewer features (e.g. The Matrix). Without the regional encoding, Brits could order their DVD's from the US. Talk about protectionism and monopolies!
I don't see what the fuss is with Hollywood's desire to control content. I think the more interesting point is that their trying to control the method of distribution (Want to make a DVD player? Buy a license.) but that's another issue altogether. I think people who distribute copyrighted works should have the right to control how that work is distributed. If I write a piece of software, I want to have the right to say, "No, you can't use it unless you give me money." Conversely, I also want the right to say, "You can have it for free." But I should be able to make money off of it, and you shouldn't be able to simply give my product away if I don't want you to.
I realize there are other issues with the whole CSS debacle, but I know if I were Hollywood, I would definitely want some way to prevent people from easily copying and distributing my product. If I don't have this, I don't have a business, and there's no incentive for me to make the product. As a capitalist society (I'm in America), this is how things work, and frankly, I don't see the problem with it.
I find this comment seriously offensive. How do you watch a DVD if you have no right to view unencrypted content?
Are you going to try to lock down my brain, and prevent me from telling all my friends about the new movie I just saw, because the memory of the movie in my brain is unencrypted and can be passed to anyone?
The fundamental problem with content encryption, which you don't seem to realize, is that if it can be sensed with our eyes and ears, then it can not be protected unless you impose thought control upon the citizens. I have a sinking feeling that Orwellian thought control is what you really want to bring about in this country. It may be legal, but it sure isn't right.
What about a player that can decode CSS, does verify the key, but can also play un-encrypted DVD content?
What DeCSS lets the consortium do is determine who will make players, and on what terms, and who will provide content. If you can neither encrypt or decrypt the bit stream, you are locked out of both markets.
I'm 99% sure you don't need to use CSS to create content - just make an unencrypted DVD. Pretty sure they exist...
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-jwb
A point came out of the article that I haven't come across before. The article implied that you cannot master a DVD without access to the encryption keys.
The article said:
Want to produce content - well, you need a license to produce the encrypted bitstream that will go on a disk, or you'll have to deal with someone who does.
I was under the impression, possibly mistaken, that it was possible to master a DVD with no encryption, i.e. a key of "zero", and that a DVD player has the ability to recognize and play back such a DVD.
Is this true, or is encryption mandatory?
If encryption is mandatory, DeCSS is of NO use in creating "pirated" copies of DVDs, and it should be argued that way in court.
After all, what good is having the decrypted data, if you can't make a playable disk with it?
Or did the opinion piece author get it wrong?
- John
As you point out, it's not about piracy. It's not about encryption. It's not even about keeping the little guy out of media. It's not even about DVD players on Linux.
It's 100% about money. It's about that $20 licensing fee. After all, would Sony pay that $20 per product license fee, if they could legally implement the decryption? Of course not. No one would. And then where would be MPAA be? There'd be no one controlling the industry, and maintaining standards that allow us to buy a DVD player and play DVD's without worrying about imcompatibilities.
Tough problem, eh?
-BrentWhen the law is contradictory to judicial opinion and another law, a judge must decide which is valid.
We've got the stick, not we just need the right judge to beat the MPAA and DVDCA over the head with it.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
The problem is, this doesn't address the DeCSS issue.
The main issue in the DeCSS trial is whether or not the DeCSS program/utility circumvents a technological method for restricting access to a copyrighted work - not whether the CSS access control is copyrighted.
In other words, the DeCSS trial isn't about whether DeCSS illegally copied how CSS decrypts DVDs. It's about whether DeCSS illegally decrypts DVDs itself. The judge has continually referred to the matter as not being a copyright issue, but rather a circumvention issue.
As a result, this ruling isn't nearly as applicable. The CCA is suing under the provisions of the DMCA that make circumvention of access barriers a crime.
"The problem is, frankly, that the corporations behind DVD are subverting governments in order to enforce their will on consumers. It ought to frighten people, it frightens me. Because if they win this based on the might and power of their money and organizations, then what new battles can they win in the future. I mean, think in terms of Soylent Green the big corporate types got the good food and the average Joe got Soylent Green or starved."
Yes, you're paranoid. Take a few steps back and reread what you just wrote. I've heard similar rants at John Birch conventsions! These sort of baseless, screwball and wacked-out aspersions have become all too common since the DeCSS affair.
No, we don't want multi-nationals making our laws for us! Sheesh! What you fail to realize, is that they CANNOT make laws for us! They have to get someone else, namely the government, to do it for them.
Tell you a story. Two corner newsstands in New York circa 1930. One of them believes in fair competition based on quality service and selection. The other wants to be the only newstand for blocks around. So the evil newstand hires the mafia to send Guido over to break the kneecaps of the good newstand's owner. A cub reporter finds out and writes an expose. People get indigant and go picket the evil newsstand, and eventually a court throws the evil owner in jail and it is out of business. Everybody happy, right? Wrong! The mafia and Guido are still out there. Nothing has been done about them. They're still breaking kneecaps and mugging boy scouts for pocket change. Soon, some other shady businessman will hire them to knock off his rivals, and so on, and so on, and so on. Nothing will ever change if you keep going after the crooked businessmen and ignore the mob.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
Region Codes: The MPAA wants a borderless economy for itself, but not for its customers.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
*sigh* Yes. Unfortunately we do.
If the prosecution were claiming that the decryption method itself was protected by copyright, and basing their suit on that, you would have a very good point.
Unfortunately, they are suing under the DMCA, which tries to outlaw Mechanisms/Devices/Methods of circumventing a technical copy protection mechanism.
Honestly, the one thing that these companies understand is money.....
A massive boycott is about the *only* thing that will sway thier opinion.
We had a cable company here, several years ago, that started doing some questionable marketing tactics.. people complained, but the company said 'we're allowed to do this, so beat it'.
Translation: If you still pay your bill, what do we care if you like us or not?
One week of organized cable revolt (thousands of people calling up and cancelling in a very short period of time)... and the company *IMMEDIATELY* changed it's tune.
Umm.. these laws do not do that. Everyone says that, but can anyone demonstrate someone who wnated to develop a DVD player for linux, but was rejected by the CSS?
From the article..
<i>And CD-RW?. Well, you know, the disks can't be played in a normal CD player. Not enough contrast in the media. Funny how that little technical problem couldn't be solved, eh?. Ah, yes, this is the world the studio execs want!. </i>
If they guy who wrote this is too ignorent to know why this is not possible, why should I belive the rest of the tripe in this article? Maybe they'll pull this one like the Windows / Linux DDoS article.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
(For non-USA readers: before trial, both lawyers have time to "discover" relevant evidence. This includes both lawyers sharing relevant information, search warrants of relevant locations, copies of all police reports...all the evidence is supposed to be found and known by both sides before trial. There should be no surprises during the trial, although Hollywood prefers surprises in their stories.)
It's about controlling the players and not the content. A "vaild" player has to implement css. They get money, and can choose who assembles/ programs players.
They control the creation, distribution and playing.
Thats all they want, but this is what every monopoly wants, isn't it?
Css is *no* copy protection, because you can copy a dvd without removing css.
I've recently written an article to the editorial board of my local newspaper which they are going to print in the opinion section. I was limited to 175 words so it was hard to explain every facet of the case, merely to get the beef across.
I would suggest more people write to their newspaper to help spread the word. Here's the article I wrote if you would like something concise that conveys the point:
Recently, the Motion Picture Association of America as well as the
DVD Content Control Association filed lawsuits in New York and
California claiming that a computer program named DeCSS allows
people to steal DVDs. This claim is misleading because DVDs can be
copied without the use of DeCSS. What DeCSS does is allows you
to watch DVDs on systems not supported by DVD player
manufacturers. All the 16 year old author of DeCSS wanted
was a means to watch a DVD on his computer rather than a TV. He
was arrested for it. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows any
content producing company to dictate where and how you can use
the information you purchased. It would be like buying a newspaper
that you can only read in your kitchen but not in your living room.
What ever happened to the idea of fair use? If you value your
freedoms, write to your legislators and boycott the major film
companies to let them know that your freedom is more important
than their greed.
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
This is only about large corporations trying to determine what we see and hear. Why the hell would I worry about bandwidth to copy a movie, when I can just modify a Tivo with a 100 GB harddrive (2*50GB)? Besides, I want the right to be able to mail order a DVD or VHS from Japan or Canada and not have some hardware restriction or software restriction limiting my right to information or entertainment. I am boycotting DVD and I am going to campaign Blockbuster and Media Play to getr them to agree.
Romanes eunt domus? People called Romanes, they go the 'ouse? It says Romans go home. No it doesn't. What's Latin fo
Oh, this is going to be most amusing....
because movie studios can release a DVD while it is still in theaters in other parts of the world.
Are you seriously attempting to tell us that Hollywood is concerned about losing revenue because people in Kuala Lampur are going to order DVDs from the US rather than going to their local theater?
Time to administer the coup de grace to your argument. If it were correct, then no movies and TV shows released on DVD after their original run is complete would have region coding. This is not the case in reality. QED.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
> Region encoding benefits the average person because
> movie studios can release a DVD while it is still in
> theaters in other parts of the world. Without region
> encoding, movie studios would have to wait until the
> movie is done in all parts of the world before
> releasing the DVD.
This argument is based upon a fallacy. There's no good reason why films should be released later in some regions than others. Obviously, it's worth doing trial runs of a film in a few cinemas in the US, to find out how marketable the film is. But once the film is released across the US, you have a very good idea of how it will do internationally. In the old days, the reason for this staggered release practise was that it took a lot of time to copy the film reels. But in today's world that excuse just doesn't hold water. It's now a method of getting more money out of non-US viewers (by lengthening the marketing cycle in those countries). Enforcing staggered releases (and dual-pricing) using DVD regional encoding is an anticompetitive practise which is against the spirit of international trade law. I see no benefit to anyone not employed by the media industry.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
The truth is, if the CCA had used really good, uncrackable encryption, this whole issue wouldn't have come up for years. We'd have been stuck with the DVDs as is with no way to make our own DVD players. I wouldn't have really opposed this, because after all if another movie format took off and it was unecrypted (think MP3s) it wouldn't matter in the long run.
The problem is, frankly, that the corporations behind DVD are subverting governments in order to enforce their will on consumers. It ought to frighten people, it frightens me. Because if they win this based on the might and power of their money and organizations, then what new battles can they win in the future. I mean, think in terms of Soylent Green the big corporate types got the good food and the average Joe got Soylent Green or starved.
I know, my hysterical, paranoid and "out there" view of a little fight over how we can use our own property for entertainment is going to make most people dismiss me as a wacko. My question is, do we really want the multi-nationals making our laws for us?
So, to put it in extremist terms, does what happens in the end in the DVD fight signal the death of the US Republic (and many other forms of popularly elected government, worldwide), or not? If not, then does it at least signify a significant change in the quality of life for people without stock in Sony or Time/Warner/AOL (c'mon, you have to admit that company name sounds like something out of a Cyberpunk novel!)?
I say fight on, fight through the courts, fight through protests, fight through the ballot box and fight through boycotts. Don't let them win.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
About 50% of the food in the US is gentetically modified and that probably means that yes, your pizza is.
Ummm... I'd be willing to be almost all of the food we eat is genetically modified in some way. You think the tomatoes grown today were like that a couple thousand years ago? Heck, so are our pets, and our children. It's called "selective breeding" - carefully choosing which plants/animals mate to enhance certain characteristics. It's all in an effort to modify the genetics.
The only difference with genetic engineering is that they skip the whole breeding step and just change the DNA to start with. The breeding is just as likely to cause harmful characteristics as the engineering.
---
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Here's some links that are especially useful for researching the legislative history of the DMCA. I believe these strongly contradict judge Kaplan's interpretations in his preliminary injunction opinio.
... As the hearing record demonstrates, I and many of my colleagues are deeply troubled by the prospect that this legislation could be used to create a `pay-per-use' society. We rejected the Administration's original proposed legislation in large part because of our concern that it would have established a legal framework for copyright owners to exploit at the expense of ordinary information consumers. By insisting on a meaningful role for the Assistant Secretary and by ensuring that a court would have an opportunity to assess a full record, we believe we have established an appropriate environment in which the fair use interests of society at large can be properly addressed.
Summary page for Legislative History of DMCA.
The following is most revealing: DMCA Comments of Commerce Chairman Bliley. Here's a few choice comments:
The Committee considered it particularly important to ensure that the concept of fair use remain firmly established in the law and that consumer electronics, telecommunications, computer, and other legitimate device manufacturers have the freedom to design new products without being subjected to the threat of litigation for making design decisions.
Sections 1201(a)(2) and (b)(1) make it illegal to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in so-called `black boxes'--devices with no substantial non-infringing uses that are expressly intended to facilitate circumvention of technological measures for purposes of gaining access to or making a copy of a work. These provisions are not aimed at widely used staple articles of commerce, such as the consumer electronics, telecommunications, and computer products--including videocassette recorders, telecommunications switches, personal computers, and servers--used by businesses and consumers everyday for perfectly legitimate purposes.
Under section 1201(a)(1)(C), the Librarian of Congress must make certain determinations based on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, who must consult with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information before making any such recommendations, which must be made on the record. As Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, I felt very strongly about ensuring that the Assistant Secretary would have a substantial and meaningful role in making fair use and related decisions, and that his or her views would be made a part of the record.
Get involved with protests being organized by 2600. Better yet, organize your own protest!
/.)
That is exactly what some of us here in Michigan (the home state of
We'll be handing out flyers and demonstrating a working Linux DVD setup in Ann Arbor tomorrow night. It's only a 1/2 hour drive from Detroit or Flint, and under an hour from Toledo, Ohio.
It will be followed up by a Quake LAN party.
Want details?
jim_tuck@newcourt.com
.sig: Now legally binding!
Isn't it nice the the MPAA that they can lock everyone else out of their market? Shouldn't the DoJ be looking into this? I think the barrier to entry into the record business is much higher than the barrier of entry to the software business.
As long as the industry can keep the price of blank DVDs more than that of the original (through their "preemptive piracy tax" or pressure on manufacturers), I don't think they'll worry too much about runaway copying between friends. The DVD-factories in the China area are going to be much more of a pain than that.
I definitely think it's a desire by the industry to have strong influence in every aspect of the entertainment process, from production to viewing.
If they don't win, they'll have lost control of their "Trade Secret." If that happens, any hardware manufacturer who comes along will be able to make a player that can play DVD's without talking to the MPAA for licensing, right? They'll throw a billion dollars at this case if that's what it takes, and employ the Chewbacca Offense. There's now way we're gonna win this one. They'll freaking lobby Congress with their billions to change the constitution, if that's what it takes.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
So, since an industry as a whole is successful, it is okay to steal from them? If I stole millions of dollars from a bank, would that be okay since the banking industry is hardly going, "belly up"?
How many companies have gone "belly up" because there software was not purchased by enough honest people? There are numerous cases of companies abandoning markets because sales weren't high enough. Perhaps they could have been higher if people wouldn't have pirated their software. How many programs have we lost because of people like you? How many people have lost their business because sales have not been what they should have been because of people like you? Please don't try to rationalize your behavior with such poor logic.
You can do anything you want, but know that pirating is never the right thing to do, and your justification that it is okay since just stealing from the faceless corporations is wrong.
Sig goes here
Yes we should get OUR SIDE of the story out, simply because we have the truth on our side, but ultimately this is a legal issue.
In the 1950's public opinion said that black people weren't allowed to go to white schools. When this was challenged it LOST.
In matters of rights, public opinion doesn't matter. It might take time for this to come to the surface, but it will.
Ignore Alien Orders
the police will want to see the decryption algorythms. Otherwise, they'll throw anyone owning a DVD player, who distributes DVDs, etc. into jail for breaking the encryption laws that Parlement is thinking about now.
I see a perfect way to kill the DeCSS lawsuit.
It comes to us via the Sony Vs Connectix battle. In the most recent ruling the judge's opinion includes the following...
17 U.S.C. S 102(b) (Copyright protection does not extend to any "idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery" embodied in the copyrighted work.). Software engineers designing a product that must be compatible with a copyrighted product frequently must "reverse engineer" the copyrighted product to gain access to the functional elements of the copyrighted product. See Andrew Johnson-Laird, Software Reverse Engineering in the Real World, 19 U. Dayton L. Rev. 843, 845-46 (1994).
What more do we need as ammunition?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
This article hits it right on the nose. The movie industry is leveraging CSS to create anti-competitive control and to inflate prices.
.S. V. PARAMOUNT PICTURES. Especially the first part and part (5) about block licencing.
This all happened before. Everyone should take a moment and read U
In this case the Supreme Count found that the motion picture industry was engaing in anti-competitive business practices in violation of the Sherman Act. They overruled the claim that copyright protection justify their business practices. The practices were:
Then:
A) Price Fixing - Using copyright licencing with strings attached to force theaters to raise prices
B) Tying - Using copyright licencing to sell one product (movie A) contingent on another (movie B)
Now:
A) Price Fixing - Using copyright licencing to inflate the price of DVD's using regional licencing
B) Tying - Using copyright licencing to sell one product (movie A) contingent on another (licenced player).
Well, here comes my typical rant. You've been warned.
The article didn't say much that I haven't already heard but the author was correct in saying that we aren't going to win this case. The cards are stacked heavily in the plaintiff's favor.
Or, I should say, we can't win at this level. We have to go down a few levels, to where the plaintiff's power comes from.
I've always beleived that the average person has all the power there is if we act together, and that the average person is reasonable. However, people don't support us for a few reasons:
1) In school you are not taught to think for yourself, you are taught to submit to authority, not to ask questions, and not to try and change "the way things are" which leads to #2:
2) Most information channels are controlled by the same type of people who are the plaintiffs, they have the same agenda. With the assumption that the media is a factual source of knowledge, people aren't going to ask questions. Our community is discredited with one word, hackers. This is a very powerful ability. So even though we have all the power, we've already lost because of public opinion.
So what do we do? Organize, protest, and educate. This needs to include a lot more people that are in this community as well, because all facets of society contribute to the problems we have. Our gains might be small but at least we can get the spiral of society to move upward rather than downward. I'm not talking about organizing, portesting, and educating only on the level of this specific issue either. I mean society in general. As long as we have corporations, a government who supports them, and an apathetic population, (ALL 3, simply removing the government solves nothing) these kind of problems will never be solved without having to fight tooth and nail every time with little chance of success.
Fortunatly information channels have opened up a bit, I think the internet was a good part of the reason that DIVX failed, but I think it would have failed anyway. At any rate, it can be a big help, which is why this particular community needs to fight as hard as we can on all these issues.
We won't win the fight now, but the more we can educate, the more press we can get to hear our side, the better chances of succes we have in the future.
DVD players can already play discs without DeCSS encryption. Most porn movies aren't DeCSS encrypted and they can be played in all DVD players, and also there are already numerous programs on all platforms that can play DVD's that aren't DeCSS encrypted. It CSS encrypted media, that freeware players can't play.
You're missing the point of CSS and why it is so valuable to the movie industry. The entertainment industry wants to ensure that only licensed players can play encrypted DVD's so that they can ensure players won't have a, "Save as unencrypted..." or even a "Save as..." option, and will respect the region encoding system. Without control over the players, the region encoding and CSS encryption would be useless since not all players would support it, and people will move to players that don't abide by the restrictions licensed players must adhere to. Region encoding benefits the average person because movie studios can release a DVD while it is still in theaters in other parts of the world. Without region encoding, movie studios would have to wait until the movie is done in all parts of the world before releasing the DVD.
So, before you get into a hissy fit about the monopoly the DVD consortium has, understand content makers are free to release their content without any restrictions on it, and anyone can make a player that plays this content. However, the CSS encryption allows the studios to choose to protect their assets. If you don't support CSS encrypted content, simply buy the VHS tape, or don't buy the content. You don't have the right to unencrypted content, and DeCSS would basically grant you that right.
Sig goes here
This article raises a very good point: the MPAA and its allies are very good at manipulating public opinion. In fact, not only are they very good at it, but they have all the tools to do it. The companies represented by MPAA include Warner (CNN and Time), Fox (news and newspapers), Disney (ABC), Paramount (any number of news shows), &c. You'd be a fool to assume that any of these sources is going to be unbiased about this case. Unfortunately, most people still believe that these media outlets are motivated by the search for truth, rather than corporate policy (read as: greed.)
This is why protests are important right now. The only way we are going to get our side heard is to go out and tell people what's happening. Slashdot helps a lot, but it reaches a very specialized audience. The people whose minds we need to change aren't typical Slashdot readers; they're average joes and janes, who, for the most part, have other things to worry about and don't have time to investigate these things themselves. Either we tell them what's going on, or the MPAA does through its many voices. Which would you prefer?
How to get involved:
Post other suggestions here!
Finding God in a Dog
I'm glad to see that someone is starting to "get it" - what this is all about. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit shy of the whole picture.
DeCSS is not about piracy, but about compatability - we all know that by now. You can make the bit-wise copies by other means. The real thrust is controlling the medium - who can make and sell DVD movies.
We are talking about a <b>Motion Picure</b> consortium here. That's the big clue - they could give a $#@# whether we can watch DVDs on our Linux boxes. But to get there we needed to 1) decrypt the DVD movies, 2) store them locally, 3) work on the playback software to the point that the picture and sound look good , 4) put on-the-fly decryption in the player. 5) Done. DVD on Linux.
Step 4 is what has caused the witchhunt. If the OSS folks build a DVD player - do you seriously think they will make it play ONLY encrypted DVDs? Heck NO! It will play unencrypted movies and sound also.
And THAT's the "it". After DeCSS, it is trivial to make a player that will play encrypted and UNENCRYPTED DVDs. They are scared to death of having a DVD player S/W that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs. Ever made a copy of a VHS movie for a friend? Not legal to do so, but hard to stop. If you wanted to do the same with your new spiffy DVD-R (fast forwarding a year) would you try to encrypt it? Heck NO!
Once there is an OSS DVD player application that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs, the jig is up. Independent artists can make DVDs and distribute them without CSS encryption. Your DVD player won't play it? Here's the link - download the freeware player that does.
That Japanese DVD won't let you play it? The freeware DVD player will play ANY DVD, no matter where it came from.
Then we start hacking the "upgradable" console DVD players - so they can play unencrypted DVDs and break the region locking.
Follow the reprocussions to their logical conclusion and it's easy to see why the MPAA will throw everything including the kitchen sink into this fight. They have a whole new medium to lose (not to mention the $$ they spent designing it in the first place, plus the $$ spent on getting the DMCA legislated.)
Check out the Apex AD-600A DVD, VCD and MP3 player.
There are instructions at nerd-out.com for changing the Region ID, as well as the Macrovision options and, ahem, other things, via the secret menu.
LOL. The player costs $199 at Circuit City. People are buying it en masse. I ordered mine already.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!