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DeCSS To Be Broadcast Over Oz TV

Posted by Hemos on from the round-the-world dept.

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. "

2 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Does the MPAA still care about this? by heroine · · Score: 5

    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.

  2. A little more info.... by Augury · · Score: 5

    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.