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The DeCSS Haiku
xueexueg writes: "Dr. David Touretzky has posted a new piece of DeCSS art here, as well as his response to a threatening letter from the MPAA. Both are triumphantly good, one an epic haiku with the most intelligent and beautiful commentary I've heard in months, the other a response to the MPAA lawyers who evidently told Touretzky that his entire home page
is a 'circumvention device.'" Both are good reads. I realize that posting this sort of thing on Slashdot is simply preaching to the choir, but some part of me hopes that in the end we'll still have
a freedom of speech, a freedom to reverse engineer, and a freedom to
watch the media we purchase. Sure seems less likely these days.
Comment: 02/25 2:35 PM EST by J : My favorite source for CSSdescramble() is the DVDCCA's own DNS server.
Do dig ns dvdcca.org to verify that their DNS servers are (as of right now) mercury.hypersurf.com and west.mainstreet.net.
Then, to pull the gzip'd code straight off their servers, this will work on any vaguely sh-like shell:
for DVDs in Linux screw the MPAA and ; do dig $DVDs.z.zoy.org @mercury.hypersurf.com ; done | perl -ne 's/\.//g; print pack("H224",$1) if(/^x([^z]*)/)' | gunzip > myfile.c
This trick is number nine on zoy.org's 42 ways to get DeCSS. You're actually requesting data which resides on zoy.org's DNS server, but it's being delivered to you by the DVDCCA's DNS server.
What's Wrong with Copy Protection
It is the answer of John Gilmore to a question that Ron Rivest asked: "If the customer is willing to buy extra, or special, hardware to allow him to view protected content, what is wrong with that?"
Check out some of this guy's other stuff. He's got a section where he makes fun of scientologists (they've threatened him of course). They even came and picketed his office one day.
Vidi, Vici, Veni
The program of course was named DeCSS, and was meant to lure the MPAA into filing false suites.
For a while it looked like the MPAA was going to ignore this other DeCSS, but it looks like they've finally gone for the bait:
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-- I beleve you'll like this -->
of Derek Fawcus's version of CSS-descrambler as an appendix of the my Master Thesis. (The title of my thesis is "Legal Protection for Computer Software" so there's really a relevance). And of course I cited Dr. David Touretzky's Gallery of CSS Descramblers few times. The printed version will be soon in the library of the faculty of law of the University of Helsinki, unfortunately only in Finnish..
Anyway DeCSS should be fully legal in Europe as long as the new copyright directive isn't in force yet (Decompliation is "fair use" and can't be denied in the license).
Ville Oksanen
My DeCSS archive:
Download, mirror, maybe even use to watch movies on Linux and BSD.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
MPAA: Motion Picture Association of America, the organization up in arms over the fact that someone implemented the CSS decryption algorithm without their permission.
;-): MPEG-4-based movie codec, supposedly developed from a hacked Microsoft MPEG-4 implementation; the video equivalent to MP3.
RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America, the organization up in arms over Napster, some bootleg and live traders, and a few million cheapskates:)
Divx: A failed pay-per-view DVD format pushed by Circuit City and Thomson Electronics. Lasted just over a year before it was killed due to the overwhelming popularity of vanilla DVD.
DivX
Copyright law: body of law dealing with creators' control over works they've created, and how such works may be distributed.
Patent law: body of law dealing with exclusive rights to inventions.
Feel free to correct me on any of these if I've also blown it.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Just so I'm clear for future discussions on this subject...
What does the DVD CCA claim protection for the CSS algorithm under? Is it copyrighted, patented, or considered a trade secret? Do they even claim any protection? They try to force player manufacturers to pay a license fee to use the algorithm in their hardware or software. I notice that the copyright infringement charges laid against Jon Johansen didn't stick, because he apparently didn't violate anyone's copyright. I don't recall anyone ever digging out a patent number for the algorithm. That leaves trade secret, and unless the algorithm was leaked by someone under NDA, the implementation MoRE and/or Derek Fawcus developed is nice and legal. As the story goes, some keys were found in the open in Xing's DVD software player, from which the entire algorithm was determined...so unless that's a complete fabrication, and someone under NDA did something they shouldn't have, I really don't see where the CCA is coming from.
Oh, that DMCA thingy, section 1201(a)(1)...yeah. "Circumvention of an access control." Not "copy control", because you can still copy DVDs even with CSS enabled. Interoperability apparently isn't a defense. I thought there was a provision for reverse-engineering something to let a piece of media be used on platforms the vendor doesn't support, but I recall Judge Kaplan throwing out that defense during the original case against 2600 and the others.
Hrm...I started with a question, I came up with half an answer...does anyone know the full answer? Is section 1201(a)(1) the only club the CCA can use against DeCSS holders and users?
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
>> told Touretzky that his entire home page is a 'circumvention device.
;-)
Wouldn't, then, someone who memorized the entire DeCSS source be a circumvention device in themselves? Touretzky has other non-DeCSS stuff on his site, much like anyone who memorizes the code has non-DeCSS stuff in their heads.
This scares me. MPAA lobotomies to get rid of the memorized code---oh wait, that's what Battlefield Earth was for. And who, of all people, would be interested in a crappy sci-fi movie? The same people who would memorize the DeCSS source! It's all making sense, now!
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
Here is a letter that I sent to my congressman - Brad Sherman (D - Sherman Oaks). I doubt that anything will happen from it, but at least I said something...
-- cut here --
Dear Congressman Sherman,
I had the pleasure of meeting you on the evening of 2/23/01, at Temple Judea. I was the man with the two young daughters who was sitting behind you.
If you may recall, I took the opportunity to discuss the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and patent reform with you. I realize that time was short, and I was perhaps less than fully comprehensible, for which I apologize.
I am writing to express my dismay at the Department of Justice filing a brief in Universal City Studios, et al. vs. Eric Corley aka 2600 (See the link http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-usa.htm). This is a free speech matter wherein the government should be filing on behalf of the defendants, not the plaintiffs.
Essentially, Mr. Corley published a program called "DeCSS" on his website. The Motion Picture Association of America successfully sued under the DMCA to have it removed as a "Circumvention of Access Control". However, the MPAA often refers to the Content Scrambling System (CSS) on DVD movies as "copy protection", and an attempt to protect their copyright on movies.
I have no objection to copyright holders protecting their interests -- that's another debate for another time -- but in this situation, they are using a sledgehammer to swat a fly, and missing the mark (if you will excuse the confused metaphor).
Essentially, what CSS does is scramble the digital data on the DVD so that it cannot be read without descrambling it. The MPAA claims that this is to prevent copying. However, a DVD is nothing but a stream of ones and zeros, with the only meaning to those ones and zeroes that which we give it by interpretation.
Consider a book written in Swedish. I do not read Swedish, and cannot use the book without a Swedish-English dictionary. However, I can copy the book either mechanically or by hand without interpreting it. Similarly, I can copy a DVD without interpreting those ones and zeroes that make up the data on the disk.
DeCSS is a program that descrambles the CSS coded video stream on the disk. In the analogy given above, it functions as a Swedish-English dictionary. It allows me *FAIR USE* of the DVD which I have purchased, and under the doctrine of first sale, the MPAA has absolutely no rights to tell me what I may or may not do with said DVD.
Now back to the point. I am distressed and dismayed by the intervention of the DOJ in this case, as I believe that the lower court ruling was incorrect, and the attempted restraint on free speech is unconstitutional.
I ask you, as a voting constituent, to ask the Administration to remove itself from these proceedings.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
In the email sent to CMU the MPAA writes:
DeCSS is a software utility that decrypts or unscrambles the contents of DVDs (consisting of copyrighted motion pictures) or otherwise circumvents the protection afforded by the Contents Scramble System (CSS) and permits the copying of the DVD contents and/or any portion thereof.
Then the MPAA goes on to say:
Also pursuant to DMCA, we hereby state, under penalty of perjury under the law of California and under the laws of the United States, that the information in this notification is accurate and that we are authorized to act on behalf of the owners of the exclusive rights being infringed as set forth in this notification.
Since the first identified paragraph is inaccurate, they openly admit to perjury!!
A) DeCSS is NOT a software utility, it is an algorithm
B) DVD copying does NOT require the unscrambling of the data
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
OOG ANGRY PEOPLE NOT CREDIT OOG WITH DISCOVERY OF FIRE!!! OOG SPEND LOT OF TIME WORKING ON WAY TO START FIRE SO OOG COULD SMOKE FAT BAG OF CAVE WEED!!! OOG PISSED THAT STUPID GROG STEAL OOG IDEA AND TAKE CREDIT FOR OOG GENIUS!!! OOG STILL HOLD PATENT ON FIRE THOUGH, SO OOG NOT WANT SOMEONE REVERSE ENGINEERING OOG FIRE DISCOVERY!!!
OOG THE OPEN SOURCE CAVEMAN!!! OOG BREAK HEAD WITH OPEN SOURCE CD!!!
What I find particularly elegant about the work is how well informed it is by classical models. It's not just that it's 5-7-5 "verses", but that the whole thing is built around the Greek epic poem model. It's written to evoke Homer and Hesiod, complete with initial invocation of a muse and subsequent references to that muse. It includes traditional asides, stops frequently to praise its heroes, and closes with a prayer (of sorts).
It's also similar in more than just form. Works like Hesiod's Theogony are not just spoken poetic entertainment: they delineate the world view of their culture. In the same way, the DeCSS epic instructs the "listener" in the world view and cultural values of those opposing DeCSS.
It's a lovely thing to wake up to this morning.
Now... I live in Eugene, OR, which is one of the hotbeds of 'anti-corporatist anarchism' and such... and though I'd venture to say that a very, very large percentage of the people involved with such groups are just there to wreak havoc, the small portion that does actually beleive in their goals are, in my opinion, going about it the wrong way. Dr. David Touretzky is going about it the right way. Instead of rioting and breaking windows and throwing bricks at cops to make his point, he's going about it in a fashion that not only makes him look clever, but makes the MPA look absolutely stupid. We have to stand up for our rights, or else, eventually, someone is going to ride roughshod over us all, and then it's all over (read Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago for a more detailed description of what happens when people don't voice a word of protest when they're being opressed). However, our protests have to be intelligent, well thought out, and above all, non-threatening to the average citizen, which is who we're supposedly trying to get on our side. Tattooed rioters smashing windows and attacking cops to 'send out a message against corporatism' is simply counterproductive. Kudos to Dr. Touretzky.
"Cut word lines. Cut music lines. Smash the control images. Smash the control machine." - William S. Burroughs
Ah yes. Because today the rich are in charge, as opposed to all of the previous great eras when all of the people of the world controlled everyth-- Hey! Wait a minute! [The rest of this sarcasm is left as an exercise to the trol^H^H^H^H reader.]
/. just linked to decss...dammit, now it's gonna get shut down
Re: various ways to distribute the code.
How about a "compression algorithm" who's output when "decompressing" the MPAA's threat letter is DeCSS code? That way perhaps the MPAA would have to threaten themselves.
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I have no interest in getting DeCSS to work, at least not right now. (One major reason is that I don't have a DVD drive...) But the fact that the RIAA is trying to keep me from seeing it -- a violation of the first amendment, IMHO -- inspired - no, forced - me to download it.
BTW, if you're the RIAA... I'm just kidding. I'd never do anything that didn't please you.
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suwain_2
I just realised what is wrong with the IT industry. We have a new technology and people seem to think that this creates new 'laws'. New fangled keywords such as 'reverse engineering' which (as far as i see) translates to 'let's see how this works' suddenly become issues. Where would we be now if Mr Grog Caveman said 'It's against the law to reverse engineer my heat generating device (fire(tm))?