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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.

6 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. When Bionic vision comes around... by mr100percent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In 10 years I hope to get artificial vision implants, because of my poor eyesight.

    Imagine, I can watch something, then use my built-in TiVO in my bionic eye to watch again and again.

    Think the DMCA means I can't go to a movie theater or watch a DVD?

  2. What Kosh would say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "So it begins... The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

  3. Methinks not by mwillems · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I don;t think this is FUD. This is a reaction to a decrease in what we can do.

    I just bought a new Linux PC as my main desktop machine. Nice box: and it even has a DVD drive. Finally, I can watch the DVDs I bought (and paid for) in my office.

    Not. I found a DVD player alright (xine), but all it will play is one DVD, that is not encrypted (ghost in the shell). I have watched it twice already.

    Now I'd really like to watch the others that I bought. But the suits say I cannot. Worse, the American suits - I am neither American, nor living in the USA. And yet, I cannot find a downloadable player anywhere that works.

    Another issue: my DVDs are also a mixture of regions 1, 2 and 3! I know the suits will say that this is bad of me, but I live in Canada and work in Hong Kong and London (UK). So naturally I do not restict my buying behaviour to the time that I am home.

    It's not FUD. Sowing FUD is "creating unreasonable fear of what might happen". This is annoyance at what HAS happened..

    Michael

    --

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    BDOS ERR ON A:>
  4. DMCA Voting record? by blogan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anyone have a list of which senators and representatives voted for the DMCA? I tried the LOC, but all I got was when it was passed, not the voting records.

  5. Re:Ignoring the internet piracy... by coupland · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are missing the entire moral ground here. Pirating DVDs is *illegal* and no one should do it. Anyone who really understands this issue would agree. But DeCSS is simply decryption code that has a multitude of perfectly legal uses.

    Unfortunately the media giants have pressured the goverment to make decryption itself illegal if the work is copyrighted. Panty-hose can be used to cover your face during a bank heist BUT YOU CAN STILL BUY THEM! Rather than prosecuting people for encryption algorithms they should be prosecuting the people using [ DeCSS | Napster | CD-R Drives | insert evil technology here ] to illegally trade in copyrighted works.

    That is called being impartial. Endorsing the misinformation that the media giants are spewing about the "evils" of DeCSS is not.

  6. Re:Ignoring the internet piracy... by shanek · · Score: 4, Insightful
    What the above two guys said, and also this:

    I just pulled out several DVDs from my collection and read them. None of them have the disclaimer you mention. They have the following: "This product is authorized for sale in U.S.A. only. This DVD is [or "these DVDs are" for 2-DVD sets] for private home viewing only. They are not authorized for any other use. All other rights reserved. Distributed by blah blah blah..."

    In their own legal disclaimers, they gave me explicit rights to private home viewing. No limitation is given for licensed players. The verbiage varies, but no mention is made on any of them for licensed players; therefore, I have the right to use any player I wish as long as it's for private home viewing.