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DeCSS To Be Broadcast Over Oz TV
EngrBohn writes: "Just when you thought the DeCSS saga couldn't get more interesting. 2600 Australia plans to broadcast the DeCSS code at 12 frames per second for 15 seconds on Australian television sometime in the next few weeks in part of a commercial by MindShare. Too bad this'll be too late for the Obfuscated DeCSS Contest. "
You seem to have missed the fact that 2600 Australia isn't legally associated with 2600 Magazine in New York or personally with Emmanuel Goldstein (aka Eric Corley). There is no law in Australia against use, distribution, manufacturing of DeCSS. The MPAA flew a lawyer down to Canberra two weeks ago to the Federal Attorney General about getting some changes made to copyright laws but even assuming the proposed Digital Agenda Bill soon to go through parliament goes through unchanged, Australians will be able to use DeCSS - it's just that no .au companies will be able to distribute it (until the MPAA sends some flunkies down here to start seeking injunctions). And anyway, if we run into broadcast issues on the station we have permission from, we'll take it elsewhere and kick up a 2600-sized stink about it. -Anonymous 2600 Australia Flunky
I'm sure DVD CCA has accomplices all over the world. One of the problems of television (centralized broadcast model) is that it's too easy to lean on one or two people whose first duty is to the bottom line -- not to "journalistic or editorial integrity" -- and arrange to get Undesireable Material to never air. CBS caved to Big Tobacco, so I see no reason why an Australian TV station should be more willing to stand up to the entertainment conglomerate.
If I have been in their shoes, I would have kept it a secret until the ad was already in rotation.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Everyone seems to complain that this isn't an effective way of getting the point across. It is! Every 'innocent' that sees it is going to see the 2600 URL splashed across the last few seconds of the spot, say to him/herself 'What the hell was that? Must be some computer thingie.' and promptly ask the well-informed geek down the street. He/she'll be able to get the message across far more effectivly than the fifteen seconds of airtime they could afford could ever hope..
Mad props to the Aussie hacks! Stealing the mindshare of Mom and Pop Glassteat!!
.sig: Now legally binding!
One of the points in their 1999 injunctions was that since they acted within 2 months of deCSS it warranted the court's upholding of their injunctions. Today we see nothing in the news about the MPAA banning deCSS nor do we see any more states filing injunctions. It's as if the public has lost interest in it. On the other hand, computer DVD drives are twice as expensive as they were before deCSS and most manufacturers appear to have suspended DVD-ROM production. Perhaps the MPAA has taken action in more subtle ways. It's much cheaper to get an appliance for playback only than a DVD-ROM which can copy them on a computer where 6 months ago the DVD-ROM was a steal.
From what I've heard from the Australian 2600 mailing list, the broadcast will be about 15 seconds long, and spaced such that each frame is easily captured on a standard video cassette, and can be re-viewed page by page using frame-by-frame advance.
;)
The guy who's setting it up has actually put a fair amount of thought into it, and the DeCSS won't be the only thing that is broadcast. From what I remember, he intends to broadcast a number of other 'supressed' images or texts in the 15 second slot.
Also from memory, he's organising a local mob to do a little music to run over it, and he'll be flashing the 2600 web address at the end.
For all of those who are already asking 'but isn't this pointless, everyone already has DeCSS?', the point is not to distribute DeCSS, but to demonstrate that censorship of items such as DeCSS leads only to more and more widespread distribution, even to the point of datacasting it across Australian television at 3am.
Oh, and he got the slot for free
B.