Other Fair-Uses For DeCSS?

Kagami asks: "In any discussion of the DMCA, CSS, and DeCSS, I've only seen two reasons mentioned for why someone would need to work around CSS: 1) to play DVD video on hardware with no licensed support (usually under Linux) and occasionally, 2) to use clips from a movie as part of a presentation. I kept expecting someone else to mention that that's only the tip of what the DMCA's encryption-breaking ban makes illegal. Surely I'm not the only one that's had other reasons to modify the content of a DVD I own?" Can you think of other purposes to which DeCSS might be put to use that might be considered "fair"?

"In my case, I've made decrypted copies of DVDs on my harddrive three times so far, for the following reasons:

• The movie 'The Truman Show' simply refuses to play on this sytem, or at least the disc I had did, regardless of player software used. It would always stop immediately after the copyright message. Presumably there was some problem with one of the index files, menu files, etc. Using DeCSS, I was able to play the VOB files themselves with no problems... but under the DMCA, watching 'The Truman Show' on this computer (running Windows, mind you) is illegal.
• I purchased a music-video single DVD (Utada Hikaru, 'Wait and See ~risuku~') and found it significantly more convenient to play it off my harddrive than to reach for the disc everytime I want to play one single video... but under the DMCA, making it more convenient to play discs I own is illegal.
• Another music-video DVD I have (Hamasaki Ayumi's music video collection DVD) features a menu system from which one can select any one of the videos to view, but fails to include a 'play-all', jukebox style function. I decrypted the music video portion of the disc into two huge files on my HD that will play non-stop from beginning to end... but under the DMCA, watching my music videos without stopping to select each one individually has become an illegal act.

Now tell me ALL OF THAT makes sense...

So, anyone else here have similar stories? I'm sort of surprised I haven't seen a list already... or did I just miss it?"

Comments

Well officer,

[billybob2001]

I purchased a music-video single DVD (Utada Hikaru, 'Wait and See ~risuku~') and found it significantly more convenient to play it off my harddrive than to reach for the disc everytime I want to play one single video

I find it significantly more convenient to keep Britney Spears locked in my basement, available 24/7, rather than have to reach for a disc every time I want to see her perform.

Re:Well officer,

[remande]

If you did that, you could save the rest of us a lot of grief.

Re:Well officer,

[Stavr0]

I find it significantly more convenient to keep Britney Spears locked in my basement..

... and remember to put a Simplex lock on your basement door, as it is a piss-poor yet legally enforceable access restriction device under the DCMA

ObOntopic: I'd use DeCSS to watch the UNCENSORED Region 2 copy of Eyes Wide Shut which I'd have bought LEGALLY in Europe and are entitled to watch. Add to that the french dub of La Vita È Bella, whose R1 DVD does not include a french dub.
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Inanimate Carbon Rod thanks you for your support. See you in 2004!

Artwork

[Xunker]

I have several Anime titles that have scenes in the that are just gorgeous and It would be nice if I could get a frame to use as wallpaper or kill a tree and make a wall poster -- but oh no, I can't-- and I can't just do ALT+PrtScn (under w9x) to do a screen cap because most DVD playing software and hardware uses video overlay mode.

My DVD Player (SigmaDesign Hollywood+) even offers a screenshot button, to boot, but I can never use it becuase "This DVD is copyrighted".

Eyes Wide Shut

[guran]

I'd use DeCSS to watch the UNCENSORED Region 2 copy of Eyes Wide Shut which I'd have bought LEGALLY in Europe and are entitled to watch.

Now I'm european and I really liked the movie. Could you tell me how butchered your "regular" version was? (I assume it is the US version)

Media changes in the future...

[Enry]

What if DVDs aren't around in 20 years?

I'll give a rather timely anecdote:

Way back when (in the mid '60s) there was a bunch of records from Firestone during the Christmas season. I grew up listening to these. Unfortunately, records are no longer being made, record players are almost as hard to find, and the media itself has been degrading for 30+ years.

As a present to my parents this year, I've purchased a set of records from Ebay, recorded them to my machine, filtered out the pops/clicks, and then burned them onto a CD.

Let's advance this to 20+ years from now when my kids want to make me a copy of the special edition of "Army of Darkness". It isn't being made on [insert future technology], and DVD players have gone the way of the dinosaur. What if my kids wanted to copy the DVD to [insert future technology] so I can enjoy the movie in my old age? I still own legal copies, and in the case of music, this is perfectly legal under the home recording act.

Some truth about DeCSS

[Anonymous Coward]

Not fully related to this story, but ontopic. Slashdot refused to publish this true story, so go find out yourself: http://www.geocities.com/decs str uth/decsstruth.txt

A case study in poor encryption approaches?

[nellardo]

A class on encryption would reasonably have both demonstrations of decryption and assignments in performing decryption. As the first widely used consumer encryption format, not cracking DVD in a class on encryption would be a serious lack. DeCSS itself would be used in an assignment to crack DVD as a benchmark to compare students' work to. I.e., to get a good grade, you have to do it faster than DeCSS, clearer, maybe accounting for reasonable future extensions to CSS and so forth. Makes a great first assignment, especially in a low-level course.

In an encryption course, CSS is an excellent case study in the weakness of low-bit keys and the fallibility of security through "obscurity". It's also a good example of the tradeoffs inherent in encryption:

• security vs convenience. Greater security requires less convenience and vice versa.
• cost vs robustness. Greater robustness costs more to produce. CSS is a solution designed to be as low cost as possible while still satisfying the MPAA.
• obscurity vs cryptographic strength. A simple algorithm may be "secure" while obscure, but will fail compared to a more complex one with mathematically provable cryptographic strength.

In fact, I'd be really surprised if cryptography courses aren't covering it already.