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Video Information From Disinformation
The movie industry, at least as embodied by the eight big studios that make up the MPAA, has an attitude about home movie viewing of "fair use, schmair use." Just because you bought a movie on DVD, and the hardware to play it back, the MPAA doesn't want you to watch it except with playback mechanisms they've approved. And despite the relative fame (or is it notoriety?) of software to allow viewing DVDs under Linux, or to convert the data-hungry DVD format to leaner alternatives, using it is beyond the ken of most computer users -- Yes, even Linux users. Not to worry.
Nick Hodulik, Director of Technology for disinfo.com writes:
" [...] Anyway, I thought that Slashdot might be interested in a dossier that we are featuring this week. The dossier covers the basics/history of the DivX codec, Video Compression, and DVD piracy. In addition the dossier features numerous links to tutorials and further information. I'm excited about this piece because I feel that it not only is a good introduction to this genre, but it also provides the reader with access to just about everything needed make and play DivX encoded files. The dossier is currently being featured on the front-page of disinfo.com, and is also accessible at [T his page].The brief history and explanation of DeCSS and DivX is geared to readers unfamiliar with them, and probably contains little new information to regular slashdot readers. On the other hand, the collection of links -- leading to information about setting up video playback on your system, about the DeCSS saga in more detail, and about next-generation DivX codecs -- is well-chosen and worth exploring top to bottom.
DivX is a real hack of a standard - basically, it's just a leaked version of the MPEG 4 codec from Microsoft, and a MP3 audio stream. You need a pretty fast computer to decode it, and it's only decodable on computer. I personally would rather use my nice big TV to watch movies.... SVCD is far better in my opinion - it offers most of the features of DVD (menus, overlayed subtitles, multiple audio tracks), and nearly every DVD player out there will play an SVCD. SVCD compression isn't as good as DivX (space wise, not quality, which depends on the encoder). SVCD is MPEG 2 compression which is fairly standard across all computers - the DivX codec on the only linux player is a hack on the Windows codec, making it x86 only. DivX seems like a fad to me - the codec is so new and not standardized that I doubt it'll last too long before the next fad compression technology comes out. Seems like the old audio compression format battles of a couple years ago - the open standard (mp3) prevailed over others (AAC, .rm, etc)
For a site speciallizing in "disinformation", I was rather surprised/disappointed that disinfo.com has done just what the MPAA has done and equated decryption (and the accessibility it gains) to piracy. Wrong! As has been discussed here (many many times) bypassing CSS does not automatically lead to piracy.
Unfortuantely, the DivX part of the article seemed to be a "Ha! You can't stop us pirating movies any more than you can stop us pirating music!"-type rant. This is not helping...
"I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
Auctally they did have dreams of a DVD player for Linux.
The reason it was written as a windows executable was because linux didn't have UDF support at the time.
If you want proof, read the court transcripts (and depositions) from the MPAAv2600.. Jon Johanson has testified himself.
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_ca ses/
My email addy? should be easy enough.
Not so clear cut, actually. Even accepting that the organization is non-profit, if the film festival charged money, then it's a commercial use, and every commercial use is presumptively ...unfair"(Sony v Univeral, 464 U.S. 417, which is the case on this subject, includes that little gem as part of the overall analysis that made VTR's legal.
Further, the MPAA and their associates regard DVDs not as movies, but as software, and assert that under the DMCA that any use other than the use which the producer intended is illegal. (See, for example, Valenti's deposition and the related slashdot discussion.)
If Valenti and the MPAA are correct, then there is perhaps no legal way for you to use that image without permission. The implications of DMCA in this regard are still to be litigated.
It's always important to remember that the law doesn't mean what you want it to mean, even when you want something reasonable. It means whatever five Justices agree that it means. Of course, since the 55mph speed limit created a whole generation of Americans who believe that laws are optional, I guess we'll have to expect more "technical" piracy.
tc>
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Most Americans don't understand science, and they wouldn't like it if they did.
A real world example. I was involved with a film festival. We wanted to honor a director. The studio didn't get us a photograph in time. They called me needing an image. I had a vDVD that had an interview with the director. I grabbed still frames from the DVD, made TIFFs and gave them to the art director and they wound up in the festival program.
Clear-cut case of fair use, right? Non-profit organization. But in order to do this, I had to use a hack to turn off the stupid DVD "feature" that prevented my computer DVD player from grabbing a frame. I had to technically violate a law.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Not. Here is how to get a VOB file off a CD so we can actually watch what we paid for. (quick example, don't expect it to work for you).
s /livid && cvs login && cvs -z3 co -P css-auth
/dev/dvd && ./reset /dev/dvd && ./tstdvd /dev/dvd /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd && ./tstdvd /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd/video_ts/vts_01_1.vob /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd/video_ts/vts_01_1.vob | ./css-cat -v1P -> 01_1.vob
export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxvideo.org:/cv
cd css-auth && make
umount
mount
mv title-key title1-key
dvdinfo
cat
mpeg2player -vob -f 01_1.vob
Just replace 01_1.vob with - in the last two lines to watch it realtime.
Let's just say this is one CLI program that doesn't warrant a GUI interface.
We are losing a right by not being able to watch a movie. We should also have the right to take footage from movies an redub them or edit them as we see fit to create parodies for distribution under our own terms. (A right granted by the U.S. copyright law) When I purchase a movie I have certain rights that the MPAA doesn't wan me to have, since the fair use sections of copyright aren't changing anytime soon the MPAA takes a technological solution to the problem of consumers having too much freedom. This should scare you, it shows that the MPAA is all about control of individuals that no outside entity shoul have, they are fundamentally an evil organization because of this. And by extension their employees as the employees sole purpose of employment is to advance the goals of the organization in whatever form their tasks take.
Earlier this year however, two European hackers discovered that Xing inadvertently exposed the elusive CSS encryption key in their latest DVD player. Within weeks the anonymous team released a small software program named (appropriately) DeCSS, which allowed anyone to access the contents of a DVD
They don't have a clue, do they ?
This whole thing is not about DeCSS , CSS has be cryptanalyzed to the death, but MPAA is going after DeCSS because if they can use the DMCA to ban distribution of curcumvention devices, then they have a better change of bannig this stuff
Basicly, with the link above, you can download sourcecode for programs that will retrieve ALL the 408 playerkeys on your DVD disk!!!
That's playerkeys. Keys that will work on all DVD disks. And you can do this even if you don't know a single key in advance. All this takes just about 15 minutes on a Celeron 550 MHz
--
Why pay for drugs when you can get Linux for free ?
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
...some discs take 10 minutes to load? For example, insert a Disney disc and the player locks up (becomes unresponsive to panel or remote control input) for 10 minutes while displaying advertisements.
<O
( \
X Adopt a bird today!
Will I retire or break 10K?
I disagree with what the MPAA is trying to accomplish, but some DVD's are just worth the money.
Without even going into the piracy issue, it's simply a plain fact that a DVD can be marvellous. When you really are a movie fanatic, DivX doesn't cut it:
Sorry, but I won't settle for DivX.
While all of this seems outrageous behavior by the MPAA, we must all remember that this is not the first time 'the law' has been used as a device to throttle new technology.
When records were introduced, musicians decried the invention as the end of live music. They fought to prevent music form being sold on the 'dictating machine' that had just been invented. Records won.
The movie & television studios went after VCRs when they first arrived. "How dare people record television?" they asked. VCRs won.
The RIAA went after Diamond when the Rio was released. Guess what? The MP3 players won.
So who will win the Napster/DeCSS wars? The new technologies will. The genie is out of the bottle and it can't go back in.
Big business will always rather use 'the law' to fight changes to business modles rather than reinvent themselves. They will eventually have to accept the idea of people copying movies just as making cassette mix tapes is accepted.
We, the consumers, will win out in the end. We have the dollars/pounds/rubles they desperately want. Eventually they will give us what we want. record companies WILL sell MP3s of live performances and movie studios will sell enhanced DVDlike movie on the net.
Look at what happened to a bad technology, the Divx DVD system. Consumers saw it for what it was, an attempt to wring every last dollar of out of the consumer with no benefit. Divx is out of business.
The most important thing we can do as individuals is write our government reps and tell them our views. The MPAA & RIAA have lobbiest in their offices all the time. Make sure they see more than one side of the arguement.
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Doesn't matter to me why DeCSS was created. As long as I have full access to the DVDs I purchase. Just as I have access to VHS tapes and CDs, etc. I don't plan on having the MPAA or anyone else tell me when, where, or how I can view the material on those DVDs. If I want to rip them to my hard drive, then I will. If I want to watch them using Linux, then I'll do that too. It doesn't really matter what they want me to do with the DVD anymore than it matters what a book publisher wants me to do with the book. I will do what I want (within the bounds of fair use rules) because I bought it and it's mine. As long as I'm not distributing copies or holding public screenings of movies, then I haven't broken the law (except the DMCA perhaps, but hopefully that bit of idiotic legislation will get dumped by the courts). Of course I'm rather tempted to throw all copyright laws out the window seeing as how we've all been screwed over by the government as they keep extending, even retroactively, the copyright term. They're ripping us off, we should be able to rip them off too.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
(and might not to certain others!) :)
... it's illegal to unscramble cable, too.
a) reverse engineering. The DMCA has some bad provisions in it. I've got nothing against the MPAA's members getting together and making it so annoying and inconvenient to view movies with other than approved hardware that doing so isn't worth the bother. Well, actually, I do have *something* against it, but I say that's within their rights. To make this into a point of law ("You're not even allowed to *try* to watch that movie on other than our approved hardware, mister!") I think is a terrible precedent. Not that it's alone
b) I've bought quite a few movies, but have no DVD player, having returned the two crummy Apex 600s which at least allowed me to briefly watch Casablanca and Annie Hall before dying. I'd like to watch movies on my monitor, or in the living room, without spending a few or several hundred more dollars on a player which does nothing an 80-dollar internal drive ought to be able to do.
c) Big studio releases -- is there really a 15th Anniv. edition of "Teen Wolf"?! Horrible! -- are one thing, but if the DivX format is widespread, we could see more independent, small-time filmmakers able to cheaply distribute their work on cheap CD-Rs. HOw many do you know who could mass-produce DVDs? With the right coupons, you can usually find blank CD-Rs for what, 30 cents apiece? Same goes for computers-as-VCRs; if I could put a few hours worth of shows onto a CD-R instead of a VHS tape for my personal timeshifted viewing, I'd prefer it. I could watch it on my desktop, on a laptop (when I get one -- anyone have a G3/400 PowerBook for sale, cheap?;) ), and I bet soon on DVD players which also playback the DivX format. Yes, I know it's not the same as the CircuitCity P.O.S. -- but how long did it take for DVD players to also play V-CDs and (finally) MP3s? Why not (the new) DivX?
So it's not the movies per se that are all that important (to me), it's the availability of readable formats and of high-quality compression for all the various uses it could be put to.
There could be a DivX-Plus (again, why not?) which mimicked features of DVD like greater interactivity / scene selection, etc -- would make a good format for instructional videos, say.
Them's my thoughts, which may have large holes in them.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The record, movie, and software companies must be stopped by legistlation before it's too late.