A DVD movie is much more of a program than, say a random email or text file. It has a precise structure which is intended to produce a specific result on the screen and speakers when interpreted. I only introduced the idea of a DVD being a program to get around some poor language that I don't understand in the act. Specifically the "interoperability between programs" language. I think that fair use also enters here. The DMCA specifically states that it does not intend to restrict fair use. Playing a DVD you own on Linux clearly falls within fair use. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Someone on one of the local newsgroups at my ISP spoke about "Cargo Cult Security" recently. The Cargo Cults were people who lived in remote areas of the Pacific who, seeing the wealth of the people who could call down the bright shiny airplanes, built replica airplanes and runways out of vines to entice the airplanes to visit them and give them wealth. Cargo Cult Security is installing software of following some second hand security recommendations without understanding why you are doing it. The biggest problem here is that when something breaks, you won't know how to fix it or even that it's broken. That is the biggest problem with Microsoft "security". Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Making or distributing program/device/whatever that's only purpose is defeating encyrption on copyrighted material (no matter how weak the encryption or whether the end user has full rights to perform such encryption) is against the law.
Read further down in that section.
(f) REVERSE ENGINEERING- (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
`(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2) and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title.
`(3) The information acquired through the acts permitted under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section.
`(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term `interoperability' means the ability of computer programs to exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.
Is a film on DVD a 'computer program' within the sense of the act? If so, (and I think that a case can be made that it is) then it is legal to circumvent the copy protection for the purpose of interoperability with other soiftware (the Linux operating system).
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I was hoping for a chip that would ease the transition from x86 based software into generic Unix software. Imagine a chip that would allow a x86 compatibility-mode but would run native software more efficiently. That would ease the transition in the same way that Windows 3.0 eased the transition from DOS to Windows applications by providing backwards compatibility for old apps. It appears that Transmeta is not interested in documenting the native instruction set for Crusoe which means that there won't be native compilers which means there won't be native apps that take advantage of the speed that the new chip offers. Now *perhaps* the knowledge about the efficiencies available in the translation laver will give Linus a leg up over the coders of other operating systems, but that knowledge dosn't translate to all the other coders working on Open Source software. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Just judging from the screenshot in the lower right. That is *if* you can get through to the site. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I walked over to the ZD office building around the block from my office in NYC. They have four huge LCD screens in the lobby. Two were showing the stupid Screen Saver rerun and one was attached to a computer and keyboard, but it couldn't pull up the webcast either. The fourth just showed all of the ZD logos in some infernal video loop. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Perl is the APL of the 90s. Ouch! And I debug APL financial models built by morons who could program themselves out of a paper bag when I'm not reading/. I guess I shouldn't finish reading the Camel book. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Slashdot is Doe #57 in the case heard yesterday. It isn't odd at all. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
And consider how quickly encryption controls were lifted after the CSS crack. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Reverse engineering and further exemptions for certain research: under certain conditions, a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a computer program may circumvent a technological access control to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing portions of the program that are necessary to achieve inter-operability of an independently created computer program with other programs. Circumvention to allow interoperability. Despite the manufacturing and distribution prohibitions, a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure to enable the identification and analysis, or for the purpose of enabling inter-operability, to the extent that doing so does not otherwise constitute infringement.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
This article mentions the Reverse Engineering exception in the DMCA. Here's a quote:
Reverse Engineering Exception. Section 1201(f) allows software developers to circumvent technological protection measures of a lawfully obtained computer program in order to identify the elements necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs. A person may reverse engineer the lawfully acquired program only where the elements necessary to achieve interoperability are not readily available and reverse engineering is otherwise permitted under the copyright law. Furthermore, a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent and make available to others the information or means for the purpose of achieving interoperability.
LiViD more clearly takes advantage of the interoperability exception than does DeCSS. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I'm not saying that people shouldn't defend themselves with all of the legal resources available to them. I'm just suggesting that mirroring LiViD rather than DeCSS is a better use of the mirror space and a more defensible legal position. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
The MPAA suits filed last week (not the case heard today which was filed by the DVD CCA) is against residents of the US and is based on the Milennium Digital Copyright Act. One section of that is against devices which defeat encryption of digital copyrighted works. The case heard today was based on a trade secrets claim. Specifically that the cose contained misappropriated trade secrets since the DeCSS code was purportedly reverse engineered from the Xing player. That case is exceedingly weak and I don't expect todays hearing to go any better for the DVD CCA than the hearing in December did. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
This case was most certainly about DeCSS. That's what nearly all of the defendants posted. One defandant that I know about, Michael Pavlich, hosts LiViD. All of the suits filed last week by the MPAA were over DeCSS. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
DeCSS, the Windows program that is the subject of last week's MPAA suits, hasserved its purpose and should be allowed to die gracefully. It provided a working example of how to authenticate a drive and extract the necessary titlekey to decrypt the.VOB files and how to apply that key against the data in thefiles. But LiViD, the Linux DVD project, has moved on. The lessons learned from that source code have been incorporated in css-auth in the LiViD suite of programs. It is css-auth and its companion programs that need the protectionnow. Let DeCSS go. Mirror LiViD. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Re:Stallman's right IMHO. In this case that's good
on
Hole in GNU GPL?
·
· Score: 1
and once they distribute the object outside that boundary, they must also distribute the source But they only need to distribute the source to the people that they distribute the object to. Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Slashdot Mirror
A DVD movie is much more of a program than, say a random email or text file. It has a precise structure which is intended to produce a specific result on the screen and speakers when interpreted. I only introduced the idea of a DVD being a program to get around some poor language that I don't understand in the act. Specifically the "interoperability between programs" language. I think that fair use also enters here. The DMCA specifically states that it does not intend to restrict fair use. Playing a DVD you own on Linux clearly falls within fair use.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Someone on one of the local newsgroups at my ISP spoke about "Cargo Cult Security" recently. The Cargo Cults were people who lived in remote areas of the Pacific who, seeing the wealth of the people who could call down the bright shiny airplanes, built replica airplanes and runways out of vines to entice the airplanes to visit them and give them wealth. Cargo Cult Security is installing software of following some second hand security recommendations without understanding why you are doing it. The biggest problem here is that when something breaks, you won't know how to fix it or even that it's broken. That is the biggest problem with Microsoft "security".
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Read further down in that section.
Is a film on DVD a 'computer program' within the sense of the act? If so, (and I think that a case can be made that it is) then it is legal to circumvent the copy protection for the purpose of interoperability with other soiftware (the Linux operating system).
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I was hoping for a chip that would ease the transition from x86 based software into generic Unix software. Imagine a chip that would allow a x86 compatibility-mode but would run native software more efficiently. That would ease the transition in the same way that Windows 3.0 eased the transition from DOS to Windows applications by providing backwards compatibility for old apps. It appears that Transmeta is not interested in documenting the native instruction set for Crusoe which means that there won't be native compilers which means there won't be native apps that take advantage of the speed that the new chip offers. Now *perhaps* the knowledge about the efficiencies available in the translation laver will give Linus a leg up over the coders of other operating systems, but that knowledge dosn't translate to all the other coders working on Open Source software.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Just judging from the screenshot in the lower right. That is *if* you can get through to the site.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I don't have to spell it out, do I. /me wipes drool from chin.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I walked over to the ZD office building around the block from my office in NYC. They have four huge LCD screens in the lobby. Two were showing the stupid Screen Saver rerun and one was attached to a computer and keyboard, but it couldn't pull up the webcast either. The fourth just showed all of the ZD logos in some infernal video loop.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Perl is the APL of the 90s. Ouch! And I debug APL financial models built by morons who could program themselves out of a paper bag when I'm not reading /. I guess I shouldn't finish reading the Camel book.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Slashdot is Doe #57 in the case heard yesterday. It isn't odd at all.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I agree as there are exemptions in the DMCA for interoperability.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
And consider how quickly encryption controls were lifted after the CSS crack.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
I'm not saying that people shouldn't defend themselves with all of the legal resources available to them. I'm just suggesting that mirroring LiViD rather than DeCSS is a better use of the mirror space and a more defensible legal position.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
The MPAA suits filed last week (not the case heard today which was filed by the DVD CCA) is against residents of the US and is based on the Milennium Digital Copyright Act. One section of that is against devices which defeat encryption of digital copyrighted works. The case heard today was based on a trade secrets claim. Specifically that the cose contained misappropriated trade secrets since the DeCSS code was purportedly reverse engineered from the Xing player. That case is exceedingly weak and I don't expect todays hearing to go any better for the DVD CCA than the hearing in December did.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
This case was most certainly about DeCSS. That's what nearly all of the defendants posted. One defandant that I know about, Michael Pavlich, hosts LiViD. All of the suits filed last week by the MPAA were over DeCSS.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
DeCSS, the Windows program that is the subject of last week's MPAA suits, hasserved its purpose and should be allowed to die gracefully. It provided a working example of how to authenticate a drive and extract the necessary titlekey to decrypt the .VOB files and how to apply that key against the data in thefiles. But LiViD, the Linux DVD project, has moved on. The lessons learned from that source code have been incorporated in css-auth in the LiViD suite of programs. It is css-auth and its companion programs that need the protectionnow. Let DeCSS go. Mirror LiViD.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
and once they distribute the object outside that boundary, they must also distribute the source But they only need to distribute the source to the people that they distribute the object to.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected