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DeCSS, From the Beginning

Posted by michael on from the once-more,-with-emphasis dept.

An anonymous reader sent in a link to a presentation given by Tom Vogt at HAL 2001. He reviews the whole CSS/DeCSS mess from the beginning, which makes a it a nice backgrounder for people who are wondering what the Sklyarov, 2600 and other cases are all about.

2 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DMCA Voting record? by Sir.Cracked · · Score: 4, Informative

    I heard at one point that it was a voice vote. Now, I would hope that Congress wouldn't be so irresponsible to pass such huge legislation in a way that didn't leave us with any record of who voted for and against it, but if they were responsible, we wouldn't have this damn thing in the first place. And it does serve as an explination as to why it's so hard to find a voting record.

    --
    Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
  2. Re:Ignoring the internet piracy... by shanek · · Score: 4, Informative
    DeCSS has nothing to do with piracy. A DVD must be decrypted to be viewed; it does not have to be decrypted to be copied since the players do the decrypting, plain and simple.

    DeCSS was part of an attempt to make a Linux DVD player. The DVD Consortium, however, is using the DMCA to go after everyone who makes a DVD player without buying a $10,000 license from them. That's what it's all about--that $10,000 dollars that they have no right to force out of programmers in the first place. All of this "pirating" nonsense is just the MPAA trying to justify their actions by making the programmers out to be pirates.

    The DMCA is a wicked law, and a blatant usurpation of our basic Constitutional rights. It must be fought.