Since Kevin brought capitalism into this discussion, I would like to add a few things to what others have already said.
The consumer thrives in a capitalist market when it is easy to compete in it, or more accurately when there are a lot of people (companies) competing, since the competition will tend to decrease the price of a product until it is just possible to make money selling it. Conversely, to make lots of money in a capitalist market, you have to be doing something few other people can do. In this case you can take a good markup on your product since not many people can beat your price.
There are a few ways to achieve such a monopoly, and CSS was one of them. DeCSS should enable a lot of competition in DVD players, thereby making the market MORE free (free market = capitalism), to the consumers' advantage, of course. So DeCSS benefits the capitalist system Kevin seems to so dislike, and in so doing benefits everyone but the people who held the CSS power.
Regarding the negative comments on the WTO: free trade benefits everyone. If you can make steel at $200 per ton, but import it for $100 (if the government allows you to, by not using import duties to raise the price and protect the local steel manufacturers), then you should import it. The jobs created by the fact that anyone in the country can use steel at $100 instead of $200 will always far outweigh the jobs lost because steel is no longer produced locally but imported! It is crazy to say "I would rather buy at $200 than $100" instead of "Thanks, you just saved me $100!, I see my growth rate going up by x %". The WTO is supposed to help break down trade barriers - just wish it could do that as well as the net has! Funny thing is that it works both ways - you are getting richer and the guys you are importing from are getting richer.
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The consumer thrives in a capitalist market when it is easy to compete in it, or more accurately when there are a lot of people (companies) competing, since the competition will tend to decrease the price of a product until it is just possible to make money selling it. Conversely, to make lots of money in a capitalist market, you have to be doing something few other people can do. In this case you can take a good markup on your product since not many people can beat your price.
There are a few ways to achieve such a monopoly, and CSS was one of them. DeCSS should enable a lot of competition in DVD players, thereby making the market MORE free (free market = capitalism), to the consumers' advantage, of course. So DeCSS benefits the capitalist system Kevin seems to so dislike, and in so doing benefits everyone but the people who held the CSS power.
Regarding the negative comments on the WTO: free trade benefits everyone. If you can make steel at $200 per ton, but import it for $100 (if the government allows you to, by not using import duties to raise the price and protect the local steel manufacturers), then you should import it. The jobs created by the fact that anyone in the country can use steel at $100 instead of $200 will always far outweigh the jobs lost because steel is no longer produced locally but imported! It is crazy to say "I would rather buy at $200 than $100" instead of "Thanks, you just saved me $100!, I see my growth rate going up by x %". The WTO is supposed to help break down trade barriers - just wish it could do that as well as the net has! Funny thing is that it works both ways - you are getting richer and the guys you are importing from are getting richer.