Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Encryption Security

deCSS Listed On Download.com 235

Posted by Roblimo from the cat's-out-of-the-bag-and-won't-go-back-in dept.
Abscissa writes "I just discovered that Download.com has listed the hottest illegal utility for "bypassing" DVD copy protection. It won't be long before they get contacted by the motion picture association!" And deCSS is also mirrored on many other, lower-profile Web sites. There's simply no way it can be stopped.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

deCSS Listed On Download.com More

deCSS Listed On Download.com

Comments Filter:

  • Ha! Stick it to the man. (Score:4)

    by Daffy Duck ( 17350 ) on Tuesday November 16, 1999 @11:56PM (#1526192) Homepage
    I'm sure lots of people who don't even have DVD-ROM drives are downloading this thing just to keep it in the Net's collective memory.

    Shades of Fahrenheit 451 :)

  • This has already been covered in Hackernews. Btw, download.com has the guts to mirror it, I *really* can't believe it. Cool!!!
  • Once the genies is out of the bottle it's very hard to put it back in.

    I'm sure we'll see a concerted effort to sue the planet though.
  • is it already illegal ???
    or is it just fear of lawsuit(cost) that moves everyone to remove it from their download lists ???

  • Remember CD music? (Score:3)

    by SEWilco ( 27983 ) on Tuesday November 16, 1999 @11:59PM (#1526196) Journal
    Remember when CDs and DAT came out? The Music Industry tried to restrict copying by legislation. Now we're using $200 CD writers for portable data, and Panasonic is running commercials for their CD copiers. And the Music Industry still sells a lot of CDs.
  • Well, it happened, The RIAA found out the hard way that you can't bolt the barn door once the Horse has run. The only thing that threats have done on the Internet, in my experience, has added coverage to what would have been a boring topic, and to strengthen resolve to do exactly what the plaintiffs don't want. The RIAA played rough, they found that netizens can get very rough indeed, and if they want any sympathy from me, Merriam-Webster comes to mind.

  • Not really hosting it (Score:3)

    by vectro ( 54263 ) <vectro@pipeline.com> on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @12:01AM (#1526198)
    It seems that download.com is not really hosting it themselves, but in fact linking to a site in Denmark [worldonline.dk]. It also seems that said site has taken down [worldonline.dk] this software.
  • It is "illegal" in very few countrys. The web is world wide - so they are just threatening everyone elsewhere with lawsuits to keep this under wraps. These are just threats though - in Austrailia for example, reverse enginering for interoperability is explicitly allowed - so any files there are "safe". This won't stop them trying of course. However cutting off heads of an exponentially growing hydra is a very boring (and expensive) task...
  • There's four hosts on the download page--maybe you just got unlucky on the redirect?
  • download.com doesn't host almost all of the software they offer. Its all just links, with the exception of CNet branded browsers and such. They have multiple links for DeCSS, and the one at capital.net is up as of the time of this post (just tested it).
  • This is just the binary windows program, it can descramble the CSS but that is OK becouse it will not run on Linux.

    OTOH Derec Fawcus posted the source to CSS decryption and that might be used to watch DVD on Linux so he must be stopped at all costs.
  • The response from the internet community is certainly nice to see, and the fact that download.com would have the corporate guts to do this is pretty kewl, but be serious! Do you honestly believe the DVD-owning companies think they'll be able to totally eradicate DeCSS from the Internet? No way. Don't set up straw men - as stupid as companies can be, they're not entirely filled with idiots.

    However, if they can intimidate its programmers and prevent any future development or related programs, they're happy. This especially goes for the LinuxDVD project - if you really want to stick it to The Man, rather than provide another mirror of DeCSS, which ain't going away any time soon, find some way of helping the LinuxDVD project.

    Programs are ephemeral. Source code is forever.

  • Euh.. is it the real thing? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Can anybody confirm that this is the real DeCSS? My anti-virus software claims it contains an unknown virus. I run F-prot 4.03.
  • Just in case, there is another mirror here: http://killer.discordia.ch/Politics/Copyprotection .phtml

    It's a friends website. I bet he will get a letter from those boneheads in the movie-industries. But hey, mirror that tool at all costs! When they want to send out dead trees to anyone, they have to write not 100 but 100'000 letters!

    Information should be free!

  • Oh no... (Score:5)

    by Nichen ( 34123 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @12:16AM (#1526207) Homepage
    no more movies are going to be made, since everyone is going to download this app and become a hardcore pirate, thereby breaking the motion picture industry. Woe is us. I myself have already put out of business a couple of studios by making illegal copies of my massive DVD collection. The MPAA needs to hurry up and sue download.com, cnet and affiliate sites, and everyone that visits them to protect the fragile movie industry.

    Sheesh. I can only imagine the witchhunts that will follow once this lil' app gets around now.

    Off topic, but I wonder if napster can be configured to transfer *.vob's now? ;)
  • Robin, get your facts straight. In many countries, Australia for one, this program is not illegal.
  • In a few seconds it autodownloads the one from Denmark.. just hit stop on the page that says "Contacting downloading site, please wait...". You can choose from three sites besides the one in Denmark:
    (Click shift when you click on these to download)

    www.capital.net [capital.net]
    www.dvd-copy.com [dvd-copy.com]
    perso.libertysurf.fr [libertysurf.fr] I think maybe the guy's ISP deleted the file after "discovering" what was on there.. :)

    -Warren
  • I wonder if download.com as an entity is as responsible for this as one lone employee working unsupervised at CNet who thought to himself, gee this is kewl, maybe I should post it...
  • Cryptome seems to be keeping a running list of mirrors for this, LiVid and the like :

    [cryptome.org]
    http://cryptome.org/dvd-free.htm


    The last update was a few days ago though.

  • perhaps not _illegal_ (Score:3)

    by adraken ( 8869 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @12:42AM (#1526215)
    this utility is probably not illegal in many countries, but cnet.com is definetely posed with civil legal action by the MPAA or some other lawyers. (even more so, now that it's been posted on hackernews and slashdot) it's obvious that DeCSS, the Livid stuff, and articles explaining how it was done will live forever. the question is: will the MPAA give up and just forget about it? or will the MPAA go on a 30 year hunt to try to discourage all DVD pirating and ultimately destroy itself and the format well before a more viable solution comes along? or will they come up with a different format and screw everyone over?

  • Don't call it Illegal. (Score:5)

    by maroberts ( 15852 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @12:44AM (#1526216) Homepage Journal
    I do wish people would be more careful with the posting on Slashdot. Calling DeCSS an 'illegal' utility immediately gets motion picture lawyers backs up and will possibly have a negative impact on when/if you can happily view DVDs in Linux. This slashdot article is almost as bad as the initial Wired article that seemed to started the problems with Linux DVD development in the first place.

    AFAIK, DeCSS is *not* an illegal tool - the development of DeCSS was perfectly legal in the country in which it was developed and it would have been legal to develop it in the US and most other countries [possibly till the Digital Millenium Copyright act comes into force]

    DeCSS, at least in its Linux form, is not intended as an aid to making illegal copies, hopefully it is just a means of assisting you in viewing DVDs under Linux.

    Even the use of DeCSS in the UK, where there are specific provisions that appear to block it, is in doubt - there are a number of hurdles that someone taking the case to court would need to overcome.

    P.S. IANAL, if you are please feel free to correct any mishtakes....

  • Copy protection. (Score:5)

    by Rob the Roadie ( 2950 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @12:44AM (#1526217) Homepage
    Since copy protection was invented, there have been ways around it.

    With DAT there was some sort of digital signature (i forget the TLA) that was written to the tape that ment that the tape had to copied by the machine that produced the master. A box of tricks costing £100 (ish) got rid of that and you could freely copy DATs.

    The duplication of CD's used to be protected by the high cost of CD writters but we just copied them to tape and all was fine. CD writters now cost around £180 and everyone is freely coping CD's (either audio or MP3) and distributing copywritted material.

    The MP3 audio format was one of the final nails in the coffin. Fast, high quality and small audio files distributed freely are rapidly killing off sales of CD's. Well, so we are lead to believe by the music industry.

    All this little application does is break the current encryption/protection method used. I'm sure that within a few months a new format will come out and all the DVD hardware/software/content vendors will adopt it and proclaim it to be secure. A few months later someone will break it and announce who easy it was and how stupid the industry is for using such a weak encryption/protection method. Repeat the cycle. Do until end.


  • They've listed MoRE as the company hehe.
    Actually this is the norwegian reverse enginering
    group that the guy who produced deCSS is member
    of. It stands for Masters of Reverse Enginering.

  • Does not matter. Even if the employee has done it jumping across his terms of employment this still leaves CNET with this material on the web site.

    And there is noting wrong about it:

    Selling guns is not illegal. Firing them at people is.

    Distributing tools for commiting a crime is (mostly) not illegal. Using them is.

    Distributing software that breaks copy protection is (usually) not illegal. Using it for breaking copy protection is.

    The exemptions to these rules are listed in the laws of each country but they usually very old and do not include any computer related equipment (mostly the restrictions deal with specific tools for picking locks and stuff, tools usable for copying bank notes, etc).
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I welcome anything that gets me cheaper movies, everthing over here is more expensive than in the US (Movies, DVDs, Games, Books etc). Maybe they will do the decent thing seeing as this download is out there, and scrap regionalisation completely, the real reason it exists is to allow them to charge different prices in different locations.

    But I would say they are even more worried about all those nice sites where you can download complete movies. The whole office (almost 100 of us)where I work watched TPM two months before it was released over here in Europe.

  • i don't own a dvd player, but i would like to get the source so i could mirror that. where can i find it; what website is the project for linux dvd support at? don't moderate this up, but please moderate up answers!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion


  • Are there *realy* people still out there that haven't gotten a copy yet ???



    Since the download.com has stopped working, go grab yours here [195.115.63.44] :


    --
    Why pay for drugs when you can get Linux for free ?
  • Of course there's no way to stop this thing from being widely distributed, just like there is no way to prevent mp3 distribution or commercial software distribution. Sheesh.

    However, I do have a brlliant solution (borrowed from the epitome of corporate brillance, Microsoft). How about someone sets up a table somewhere, and asks for people to bring in pirated DVD's to be replaced by non-pirated DVDs, NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

  • Re:DeCSS source (Linux version) (Score:4)

    by maroberts ( 15852 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @01:09AM (#1526226) Homepage Journal
    ...can be downloaded from the CVS server [instructions on the web site] at: http://livid.on.openprojects.net [openprojects.net]
  • I would like to see RedHat take on this one.. hell, its a good use of investor $$$. Put up a CVS repository, hire 1000 laywers, and let the seige begin.

    Are you listening Redhat? Here's a good way for you to use all that dough. While you are at it, throw a couple mil towards lobbying against the truely bletcherous Digital Millenium Bug^H^H^H Act, which is going to single handedly cripple software innovation for decades.
  • Look at me, I'm Caspian, listen to me spout of nonsensical garbage for the length of my post. He wasn' talking about the people who make the music idiot, he was talking about the people who sell/produce the cds, and that has always been an industry.
  • Unfortunately the site at http://rhythm.cx/dvd/ has also taken down its list of sites mirroring both DeCSS and the source.

    Since when is it also illegal to link to sites containing illegal software?

  • Yea, but you can't tell me that the music industry isn't being change by the Cd burners and MP3's. This technolgy is still in it's infantcy. It will take years to see the full effect this will have. I have friends that have very large CD collections that won't buy another music CD. They'll just download the mp3's and rip them onto a CD. Over time this will take a toll and you'll see CD sales decline. We've just seen the beginning.
  • It is not (in most countries). Unless you count this as the obscure notion of promoting crime... Which actually exists in some country's laws...
  • I for one downloaded it even though I am not buying a DVD for the next year. Just the thought that I can not copy something I pay for and own makes me mad.

    And BTW people have been copying music for years and years on tapes and other media and the music industry is still there pushing out mountains of junk I cant legally preview in my own home. I just hope I can soon get shareware albums straight from the artists instead of paying Warner Brothers for their work
  • Before you start jumping up and down for joy, please remember that movie studios do not have to release movies in DVD format. Not too long ago, many of them were holding off releasing movies in DVD due to these types of fears, and others were hoping DIVX would take off.

    They are not stupid. They know that a few years from now, 6 gigs of disk space won't mean jack and the movie they release today on DVD could wind up everywhere in a few years.

    Fortunately for us, DVD home players are near critical mass. If deCSS happened two years ago, DVD for playing movies would have died a quick death. It still could. At the minimum, I predict, the studios will delay releases of DVD until well after they bleed the VCR market.

    Yeah, it pisses me off that I can't play DVD movies on my DVD-equipped computer with Linux. But imagine if Red Hat or some other distro made a deal to get a license for making a driver to play these disks. We'd all probably crucify them for releasing a proprietary, non-redestributable driver with no source.

    Sometimes you can't have your cake and eat it without upchucking the mess at the most inopportune time....

  • Re:Looks like a job for ... REDHAT (Score:4)

    by DragoonAK ( 17095 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @01:40AM (#1526236)
    I'm going to have to disagree on both counts. First off, RedHat doesn't have that much money. They may have a sky-high market valuation, but it's not like they have that much cash, or can even turn it into anywhere near that much cash. Furthermore, why should they? If RedHat really wanted to make DVDs work under Linux at any cost, they'd go to the DVD companies, *co-operate* and give incentives, not start a fight they'd probably lose no matter how many lawyers they had. Going into bankruptcy is not a good use of money. RedHat's small compared to the media conglomerates - same deal with the fight against the DMA. If RedHat can spend X million dollars against, just imagine how many millions they can use.

    Don't expect companies to perform civil disobedience or be the revolution - that's what individuals are for.

  • However, there are many that will still buy CDs. For example, my motivations are:
    1. I prefere the quality of the CDs tothe MP3. I don't know for pop music, but I like classical music (abot 400 CDs) and there I really hear a difference in quality.

    2. With a legal copy of the CD I get the nice covers and the booklet.

    3. this ought to be at the 1st place: I think it's illegal to have copies of musical CDs, when you don't own the original.





  • Mirrors ... I'm sure there are many more... (Score:5)

    by Avoiderman ( 82105 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @01:46AM (#1526238)
    http://home.worldonline.dk/~andersa/download/DeCSS .zip
    http://douglas.min.net/~drw/css-auth/
    http://www.devzero.org/freecss.html
    http://home.t-online.de/home/skinner01/decss.zip
    http://www.chello.nl/~f.vanwaveren/css-auth/css- auth.tar.gz
    http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Campus /8877/index.html
    http://www.angelfire.com/mt/popefelix/
    http://www.vexed.net/CSS
    http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~j.vreeken/
    http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/DeCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/css-auth.tar.g z
    http://www.dvd.eavy.de/css-auth.tar.gz
    http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/DeCSS.zip
    http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/DeCSS.zip and http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/css-auth.tar.gz
    http://www.dvd.eavy.de/DeCSS.zip
    http://frozenlinux.com/civ/decss/
    http://www.humpin.org/decss/
    http://www.unitycode.org/
    http://dirtass.beyatch.net/decss.zip
    http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/jvz/
    http://www.free-dvd.org.lu/
    http://www.angelfire.com/in2/mirror/
    http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/
    http://batman.jytol.fi/~vuori/dvd/
    http://www.zpok.demon.co.uk/deCSS/CSS.html
    http://plato.nebulanet.net:88/css/
    ftp://alma.dhs.org/pub/DVD/
    http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/
    http://www.logorrhea.com/main.html
    http://people.delphi.com/salfter/LiVid.tar.gz
    http://www.theresistance.net/files.html
    ftp://193.219.56.32/pub/dvd/LiVid.CVS-11.06.tar. gz and ftp://193.219.56.32/pub/dvd/LiVid.CVS-11.06.css-st uff-only.tar.gz
    http://merlin.keble.ox.ac.uk/~adrian/css/index.h tml
    http://www.dvd-copy.com/
    http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css/css-auth.tar.g z and http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css/DeCSS.zip
    http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/DeCSS.zip
    ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/ (very slow - 33.6 line)
    http://members.tripod.co.uk/bap/css/css.html
    http://www.tasam.com/~fenkt/dvd/
    ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/DVD/
    http://therapy.endorphin.org/DVD/
    http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-auth_tar.gz and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz
  • What antivirus software are you using? Latest DAT files for NAI's Netshield & Vshield, also Trend's Interscan, have no problem with my copy....
  • wich country is it illegal in ? besides USA ?
    i read they decypherd it because a key wasn t crypted...is that reverse engeenering ???
    excuse me , i know nothing...
  • Actually I think norwegian lawyers are looking into the matter right now. That's what the major norwegian newspapers said when the program was released anyway.
  • Can't speak for AVP... Sounds like it's heuristic scanning going overtime :)

    I had decss_12b.zip - 58kb

    I can send you a copy if you want...
    ... also the LiVid.tgz & cssauth.tar.gz files, if needed/for mirror...
  • Who's the RIAA?
    It's the Recording Industry Association of America. Needless to say they enjoy cracking down on mp3s to "preserve the intrests of the artists involved" They will probably be like the BSA Real Soon and crack down on mp3 trading irc rooms and whatnot.

    Do Not Duplex Transparencies

  • Sue RealNetworks!?! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wouldn't be surprised if RealNetworks is sued, they are the owners of Xing who 'let the cat out of the bag'.

    The worst thing that could happen is that they will change the DVD standard so that old players need new decoder chips and newer ones can be reprogrammed with new, stronger encryption.

    -TheScream TheScream.org [thescream.org]

  • NOT illegal (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    • Reverse engineering IS legal for the purpose of interoperability.
      See the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [hrrc.org] Section 1201(f)

      Examples of legal reverse engineering:

      • AMD Reverse engineers Intel chips so that Intel Software can run on AMD.
      • WINE Reverse engineers Windows so that Windows Software can run on Wine.
      • Linux Reverse engineers DVD so that DVD Software can run/play on Linux.

    • CSS is NOT copy protection.
      • Hardware DVD copying machines can copy DVD's without knowledge of any CSS infomation.
      • Rather, CSS acts as a mechanism to prevent "fair use" of the DVD media. CSS Authentication software merely removes this inconvenience to allow users to freely used purchaced media as governed by the "fair use" laws regarding copyrighted material.

  • Well, they don't have many options now...

    The video tape format is becoming obsolete by the minute and it can be copied with a $50 vcr. Image quality is crap and the fabrication costs are high.

    The DVD format is out there now, there are a huge number of drivers already sold, quality is ok, there are more features (multiple languages, surround, etc...) and the fabrication costs are only a fraction of what duplicating a tape costs. Also currently _there_is_no_ easy way to copy them, and if you do, it would be more expensive that buying a new one!

    All toguether, there is no way back for the movie people. They are stuck with DVD's. The only way is forward, maybe creating a better protected format wich would take another two or three years to implement and two or three months for us to crack :)

    Anyway they won't die of starvation, they are doing very well with easyly copiable video tapes. The are just greedy.

    Pirilon

  • Don't you remember that case in Sweden, a kid that only linked to mp3s on the net, he still ended up in court, although he got of in the end. It seems that "only linking" doesn't count as an excuse...
  • that whole directory has been removed now....
  • Now, if only someone could write a utility to pirate popcorn and soda, we wouldn't be paying those atrociously high prices at the movie theaters....
  • The RIAA used to be a technical standards organization for the recording industry - they would set things like standard equilization curves and provide technical support for studios. Now, they're more of a marketing and lobbying organization, apparently trying to protect the music industry's profits.


    ...phil
  • As of 7:50 eastern time, you could still get the file from download.com.


    ...phil

  • Re:Copy protection. (Score:3)

    by Baz Quux ( 33444 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @02:54AM (#1526256) Homepage
    "With DAT there was some sort of digital signature (i forget the TLA) that was written to the tape that ment that the tape had to copied by the machine that produced the master. A box of tricks costing £100 (ish) got rid of
    that and you could freely copy DATs."

    Ahh, that would be SCMS -- Serial Copying Management System. *ptooey* This depended on the hardware to check for a couple of flags on the recording - the L bit (0 for original recordings, and 1 for a first-generation copy) and the copyright bit - to determine whether to allow or disallow copying. Not really encryption, just a control check, and only consumer-level DAT machines bothered obeying. Pro DAT players typically ignore it, or can easily be set to ignore it, and nowadays, pro DAT decks are about the only ones in use. Any wonder why? (Well, there were plenty of other reasons consumer DAT sucked, but that's getting off topic.)


    The MP3 audio format was one of the final nails in the coffin. Fast, high quality and small audio files distributed freely are rapidly killing off sales of CD's. Well, so we are lead to believe by the music industry.

    Yep. They're damned fools for not seeing the forest through the trees. Capitalism isn't about saying "No, you can't have that (i.e. no decrypting DVD's, no distributing mp3's)". It's about saying "Yes, you can have that, and only for the low low price of $X." Those who oppose secondhand and thirdhand distribution of digital media are missing out, and wasting a lot of time, effort, and money in trying to stifle technology.


    Before long, we're going to have unencrypted, high-fidelity digital compression formats for any video or audio you want, and more importantly, the bandwidth to handle it. There is no stopping this. There is only the choice to embrace it and look for ways to make a buck from it, or continue dragging one's knuckes trying to stop it.


    --

  • Actually... (Score:3)

    by Wakko Warner ( 324 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @02:59AM (#1526257) Homepage Journal
    ...not all DAT decks have SCMS. My Sony M1 ignores it; I can (in theory) copy DATs to my heart's content without it complaining, or I could, if I had another DAT deck. Most "professional-grade" DAT players ignore SCMS outright or have a means of defeating it, whereas most "consumer" DAT decks willfully obey SCMS. (The lesson to be learned here should be obvious.) - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • ...not all DAT decks have SCMS. My Sony M1 ignores it; I can (in theory) copy DATs to my heart's content without it complaining, or I could, if I had another DAT deck. Most "professional-grade" DAT players ignore SCMS outright or have a means of defeating it, whereas most "consumer" DAT decks willfully obey SCMS. (The lesson to be learned here should be obvious.)

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • The corporate guts? Are you kidding? Do you think download.com goes over every stupid shareware/freeware application that get's put on their site? Of course not. They probably didn't even know it was there, for crying out loud.

    They do now, of course.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Thanks for a well written and insightful post. If DeCSS relied on leaked or stolen code and if the company had a US based presense then the utility itself is in question in the US though.

    It's not (or shouldn't be) illegal just because it enables people to make copies of a DVD, even if those copies are accurate down to the last bit. Making personal copies is allowed under the Fair Use Act (or a string of words similar to that, don't have anything that mentions it near to me). So even though as a module DeCSS can be used either to make a Linux based DVD player or a copy machine, that in itself doesn't make it illegal (or restore its legal status if there is any basis to the ip infringement issues)

    If DeCSS is free of any infringement and is a valid example of reverse engineeering then there is legal precedent. The use of the DeCSS module in a Linux based DVD viewer would then be legal as would the use of the DeCSS module in a Linux based copier.

    What would be illegal would be the use of the copier to produce copies and redistribute them whether for free or for profit. This is where in a fair world the motion picture industry would focus its legal muscle.

  • Well, I got a letter.

    I hosted DeCSS.zip for 13 hours in total, from when I first heard there was a need for mirrors, until the first Slashdot article which made me see that this was exactly the kind of thing that wouldn't be looked lightheartedly upon.

    5 days later, a New York lawyer mailed root at that server. I'm part of the root group, so I took care of answering his mails myself. Basically what they say is that anyone who's hosted DeCSS.zip has "offered to sell illegaly copied DVD movies" and "offered to give out information on how to bypass DVD copy protection" (quotations might not be 100%, but close to it ... I still have the MS Word attachment they send somewhere).

    When I answered that the server was in Sweden, and that US law luckily don't apply here, they didn't seem to understant what I was talking about ... they did however understand that the link hadn't been up for days, so I hope they won't bother us anymore. (I asked if everything was settled, but they didn't bother to reply).

    I hope someone else in Sweden will do the legal battle - copying what you own for your own backup purposes is 100% legal here. There might be a new law coming through 00/01/01 that tries to prevent decryption of encrypted information (targets pirating satellite and cabel channels) - if that's so then it might be used to make tools like DeCSS.zip illegal also.


    BTW, someone should educate the lawyer firm in how to send Emails. They send empty mails, no subject, no body, with a MS Word document as attachment that contains the actual letter ...


    If you host DeCSS.zip, and they see the link, they _will_ come after you to. They _will_ target your provider, they _will_ ask for your real name and address. Just a little FYI ...

  • Here's their little writeup on it:
    Description

    DeCSS is a freeware multimedia utility developed by MoRE (Masters of Reverse Engineering) that can copy DVD video files and save them to your PC as VOB files. Once the files are saved, you can then open and play these video files directly from your hard disk.

    Note: DVD video files are extremely large and will likely require between 5 and 10 gigabytes of hard disk space.
    I haven't unzipped the file yet to see if it actually contains decss, or a subpoena, but cool! They list 3,187 downloads as of now.
    Reliability United States

    best www.capital.net

    best www.dvd-copy.com

    Reliability Denmark
    best home.worldonline.dk

    Reliability France
    best perso.libertysurf.fr

  • Large jacket pockets and/or backpack, combined with supermarket (Or even better, Costco or Sam's or similar wholesale club). Works great. :)
  • I seem to remember that "The Music Industry" have influenced taxation of CD-recordables (i.e. the blank discs). Those taxes should then be distributed to "The Music Industry" in a way similar to when a radio station plays a piece of music.

    So basically, whenever I write a Linux CD or archieves one of my own projects on a CD, the music industry will benefit from that......pretty, yes?

    Exactly how the details are escapes me. But I know for sure that this was/is an issue in (at least) Denmark.

    Anyone with more details on this?
  • It's sort of funny. People put locks on things so others can't get in. If you have a crappy lock, you can't blame the /theif/ for getting in: you get a new, better, lock so he can't. Duh. If you could prevent the theif from getting in without the lock, why have a lock?
  • Actually, I just downloaded it.

    CNet linked me to www. capital.net

    [No name] (CAPIT4-HST)
    CAPITAL.NET 204.97.168.17
    CapitalNET Ltd
    (CAPITAL3-DOM) CAPITAL.NET



    _______________________________
  • There are no taxes on "data" CD-R drives/discs, as PC equipment does not fall under the AHRA. (Despite the fact that "data" drives work great for audio.)

    There are "music-only" CD-R devices, which will only write to a CD marked as "taxed for music use" - This media is EXPENSIVE.
  • Having purchased the right to use/read/view some copyrighted material, don't I have the right to make copies for personal/backup use?

    When you recieve copyrighted material, it is the contents of the material that is copyrighted, and not the medium it arrives on. I should therefore be able to view the contents from any medium I choose.

    By not allowing me to copy the contents from the medium, earn't they blocking my rights?

    Or is this not the case.

  • Missing the real lesson here... (Score:3)

    by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @03:52AM (#1526276) Homepage
    With all the sites coming under fire, and the MPAA on a witch hunt, we seem to have forgotten the real cause of this problem.
    • The US Government's arrogance in limiting the keys to 40 bits. MPAA and DVD manufacturers should be in an outcry over this stupidity.
    • Xing for letting go of an unencrypted key, and violating the security standards of the CSS protocol. Where are they owning up to this?
  • There oughtta be a law (like Moore's or Godwin's, not in the legislative sense) to the effect of, "User data expands to exceed available bandwidth."

    ("User data" being pr0n, mp3's, vob's, whatever.)

  • Not really. The prices for those have dropped considerably, to about twice that of normal CD-Rs (at least here in Germany).

  • Route around the problem: Usenet (Score:3)

    by Morgaine ( 4316 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @04:03AM (#1526282)
    The artificial barrier erected by studio-led organizations against access to DVD by the free operating systems is not dissimilar to a fault in the (information) network.

    Well, the Internet is good at dealing with network faults, ie. with the classic response of routing around the problem. In this case the problem is that lawyers and other luddites can prosecute website owners. No big deal: just post the sources repeatedly and automatically to appropriate Usenet newsgroups, and automatic news archiving worldwide will ensure that anyone that needs the code will be able to find it without presenting a target for slobbering lawyers.

    [And no, I do not accept that lawyers can get away with "just doing their job" without accepting responsibility for their luddism, just like I do not accept that it is moral for scientists to place tools of destruction in the hands of brainless politicians. If the legal profession wants to be well regarded, it needs to stop washing the blood of its actions off its hands.]
  • Until you programmed a seat-kicking, loud whispering, cell phone and beeper carrying jackass simulation... at least, every time I go to the movies, that's who ends up sitting behind me... Oh, and toss in some surround-sound crying babies belonging to the "we're too cheap to hire a babysitter, so we brought our baby to see the Matrix, I'm sure the gunshots won't upset him/her/it" couple in the front row. </cranky_rant>
  • this program is a wonderful one too!
    It's simple, easy to use and fast in what it does. You can't stop progress!

    Fook
  • It seems to me that they can't stop everyone from downloading a copy of DeCSS. But what about the development of DeCSS, is that still going ahead or has most everyone been scared off?

    I would think their real intent would to stop the development.

    Brandon P.
  • It seems to me the whole idea of DVD was to create a monopoly. As I understand it, the idea of the DVD protection was not to prevent copying, but to restrict playback on players who have not paid money to the DVD consortium.


    I don't know whether there are any laws forbidding this kind of practice; I'm just saying it's wrong.


    Look at it this way -- *some* form of digital medium for the sneakernet distribution of video will become the single de facto standard, and it's likely that DVD will be the one.


    With the DVD consortium in control of the keys necessary to create disks and read them, a small number of companies effectively become in control of that significant chunk of media. Free speech? Dead. Indie movies? Dead.


    Bah.
    --

  • If it can happen with DVD then presumably it will happen with Digital TV soon. What is going to stop people from downloading illegal decryption software for STB's or TV cards?
  • CNet have just listed this in their "download dispatch", with a live link for download from: http://www.dvd-copy.com


    DECSS
    File size: 60K
    License: Freeware
    Minimum requirements: Windows 98/NT 4.0

    DVD owners: Looking for a way to back up movies onto your
    hard drive? This tiny multimedia utility can rip DVD videos
    and save them directly to disk as uncompressed, playable VOB
    files. Keep in mind, however, that DVDs occupy between 5 and
    10 gigabytes of hard disk space each--so be sure to have a
    spare storage device on hand. Let 'er rip:

    http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?x=dEBhoEuKo wggomuY
  • Hmmm. Most of the *old* software licenses I remember (especially for products that came out on a single 5.25"...) specified that the user had the right to make *one* copy for archival purposes only. Those that were copy-protected, like "GATO" and "Silent Service", often included a "coupon" for ordering a backup/replacement, usually to the tune of $10.

    OTOH, I don't remember that on any recent software licenses... so that may have only been a custom. I certainly don't remember it popping up in, say, the MS WinNT EULA...

    A Stanford site [stanford.edu] seems to imply that "fair use" doctrine only covers educational and research purposes. There are also special provisions for libraries...

    Judging from that, the "right" to make a backup may only have been a privilege granted explicitly by the licensing terms -- one which may be increasingly rare nowadays.

  • Electronic Age - Products Tend Towards Free (Score:5)

    by Sorklin ( 88002 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @04:50AM (#1526300)
    I read an excellent article [wired.com] in Wired Magazine [wired.com] that partially explains what is happening here. As we enter the electronic age (sheesh what a hokey statement) leaving the industrial age behind, we have a new set of rules that naturally start to govern this new economy. My favorite new 'rule' is Follow the Free which assigns the most value to those things that are given away. Such is one of the principals in which the Open Source community operates (consciously or unconsciously).

    But we still have many businesses (including the motion picture industry) which are still operating under the old industrial age rules. Those rules favor protecting property to preserve scarcity to help assign higher product value. That we can copy movies with no real overhead, threatens the scarcity, which in turns lowers the assigned value of the product. They see the need to try to protect their property, so that they can continue to retain value assigned to it. A great example of the extreme of this mindset was Disney (until recently) which not only protected their IP, but actually would take products off the market for extended periods of time to drive up the 'value' (by making the product more scarce).

    The Electronic world compensates. Its just the beginning of the new economy, and what we are seeing is that the wired folks are starting to act in a new way. Notice the increase of attention regarding issues of intellectual property and privacy. Both of these issues have to transition to a new set of rules in this new economy and we have a conflict of the old-economy businesses and the new-economy public. Expect to see more of this for the next few years.

    The popularity of DeCSS (in our community) and the proliferations of MP3s are just two examples of the new rules in action. DeCSS is a correction to the old rules, and MP3 is the principals of the new economy in action. Not that most people have any idea that this is going on. Like rules of any economy, they 'just make sense.' We like MP3s cause it just makes sense to distribute and collect music this way.

    Of course, I could be just blowing smoke.

  • That's a bit of a false analogy, unless you include the idea that you can buy the ability to read Navajo.

    After all, if you have a licensed player, they'll let you play DVDs; it's *not* that they've made the product impossible or illegal to use, which is what you're disingenuously implying.

    What it *is* similar to are things like using colored paper to inhibit copying (been done, but not that lately AFAIK; perhaps copying tech has made this obsolete?), and burning a sector 15 on a floppy to make DISKCOPY.EXE fail. In neither case is it impossible, using their licensed method, to actually *use* the product.
  • DVD for Linux is good, and encrypting content is bad, however...

    I think the media is going to overblow this, aided by drooling w@r=z d00dz who think this is the Holy Grail or something.

    I tried this out myself. Yep it rips movies flawlessly. But then what? Do I RE-compress the movie - further degrading quality? As it is I can see DEFECTS in the ORIGINAL DVD... compressing will only make it worse. True, I tried a Windows software DVD player which accounts for most of the defects, but this is a respectable playback platform (Voodoo3, AMD K62/450 128 MB RAM).

    I don't remember all of biology, but I recall the human eye is much more sensitive than the human ear, so defects are much more obvious than say frequency clipping in an MP3... especially if you look for these things. I still grab the occasional MP3, but mostly they suck like car factory speakers suck and Microsoft ASF sucks .

    I encode my own MP3's not because I want to be legal, but because that's the opnly way for me to get 320/44 kbps which tends to preserve the upper frequencies.

    With compressing video, we're talking inter-frame compression which takes 100% of your CPU for (I'm guessing) 8 hours or more. What a sorry way to avoid $19 for a movie.

    Don't get me wrong - I think the freedom to copy content you own is a GOOD THING, and I rank encrypting content right up there with evils like sterile plant seeds (designed to make addicts of the third world). I'm sure the music industry makes a KILLING of scratched and discarded audio CD's... backing up is your right.
  • Is your computer TEMPEST shielded, perchance?

    Do you always speak in code on the phone? Or, if not, would it be fair to say that's an invitation for a wiretap?

    I don't think that's an argument that it's in anyone's long-term interest to use, unless the phrase "Welcome to the fishbowl" excites you.
  • Is it actually possible (for somebody without an industrial-grade pressing machine...) to burn a movie-length DVD?

    I was under the impression that there were some consumer-targetted RW DVD methods, but that they didn't have the full capacity of the pressed ones for whatever reason... and that thus, the industry doesn't (yet) have to worry about people distributing unlicensed DVD disks so much as online methods...

    ?
  • No, you are wrong.

    The idea was to prevent the wholesale copying of DVDs like the CD problem they have in Asia.

    There are some patent issues if you wanted to manufacture a DVD player and didn't license the appropriate patents, but itwould be far easier to just sue you, rather than going through this encryption stuff.
  • CuteMX always gives me an error about the beta being too old and that I need to download a new one... which I can't do obviously.. how do I get around this?
  • However, there are many that will still buy CDs. For example, my motivations are:
    1. I prefere the quality of the CDs tothe MP3. I don't know for pop music, but I like classical music (abot 400 CDs) and there I really hear a difference in quality.

    2. With a legal copy of the CD I get the nice covers and the booklet.

    3. this ought to be at the 1st place: I think it's illegal to have copies of musical CDs, when you don't own the original


    If it is illegal to own a copy of a CD without the original, would it also be illegal to own a CD of say... Das Cantenwerks (Spelling optional) by Bach, that you had not purchased, but instead synthesized by feeding the notes into a music generator? Or even just making copies of someone elses CD of Bach music? Why should this be illegal? Shouldn't the music of such masters be free to be distributed to everyone? I think that once the artists/creator of a work of art is dead their property should enter the public domain. Up until their death they can do anything they want with that property, sell it to companies whatever. But when they die, no matter WHO owns the work, it enters to the public domain.

    Wouldn't that be a perfect solution?

    Kintanon
  • If it can happen with DVD then presumably it will happen with Digital TV soon. What is going to stop people from downloading illegal decryption software for STB's or TV cards?


    Speaking of this, I got a TV tuner last night and then while looking for better viewer software thant the piece of MS trash that comes with it I stumbled across the semi-german version of a program called FreeTV or MoreTV that descrambled cable PPV channels, but because the most of the docs and the program were in german I wasn't able to get it working, anyone know of an english version of this prog or a similar one? It would be interesting to look at, plus I could watch ALL the 'Wrastlin' PPVs for free! >:)

    Kintanon ---Redneck at heart

  • Damn man (Score:2)

    by Uruk ( 4907 )
    Where did you get all of those links? Were you in contact with the authors that maybe knew where it had been distributed?

    2 links would have been good. 5 links would have been great. This is just awesome. Already got the binary and the source. Thanks a lot.

  • Mirror list (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Oh yeah

    Visit Humpin [humpin.org]! (No, it's not what you think!)

    Explanation on legality of this information:

    The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed. It was written by authors who expressly permitted and encourage the redistribution of this software and information. The purpose of this software is not, I repeat not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site are purely written by 3rd parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods, which is, again, completely legal. This software and information below make it possible for people who legally obtained their DVD movies to view them on their Linux systems.

    Attention

    www.rhythm.cx [rhythm.cx] was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

    NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

    UPDATE: Here [2600.com] is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

    I have taken it upon myself to mirror the mirrors. So until such time as the hounds of hell come a-knocking at my door, I present for you this list:


    Page last updated: Tue, Nov 16, 2:19pm EST

    Current Mirrors
    (Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience)

    1. http://www.humpin.org/decss/DeCSS.zip [humpin.org] and http://www.humpin.org/decss/decss.tar.gz [humpin.org]

    2. http://home.worldonline.dk/~ andersa/download/DeCSS.zip [worldonline.dk]
    3. http://douglas.min.net/~drw/css-auth/ [min.net]
    4. http://www.devzero.org/freecss.html [devzero.org]
    5. http://home.t-online.de/home/skinn er01/decss.zip [t-online.de]
    6. http://www.chello.nl/~f .vanwaveren/css-auth/css-auth.tar.gz [chello.nl]
    7. http://www.geociti es.com/ResearchTriangle/Campus/8877/index.html [geocities.com]
    8. http://www.angelfire.com/mt/popefelix/ [angelfire.com]
    9. http://www.vexed.net/CSS [vexed.net]
    10. http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~j.vr eeken/ [chello.nl]
    11. http://www.dvd.eavy.de/css-auth.tar.gz [dvd.eavy.de] and http://www.dvd.eavy.de/DeCSS.zip [dvd.eavy.de]
    12. http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/css-aut h.tar.gz [eavy.net] and http://www.eavy.net/stuff/dvd/DeCSS.zip [eavy.net]
    13. http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/DeCSS.zip [dynamsol.com]
    14. http://frozenlinux.com/civ/decss/ [frozenlinux.com]
    15. http://www.unitycode.org/ [unitycode.org]
    16. http://dirtass.beyatch.net/decss.zip [beyatch.net]
    17. http://sharedlib.org/decss.zip [sharedlib.org]
    18. http://decss.tripod.com/index.html [tripod.com]
    19. http://www.free-dvd.org.lu/ [free-dvd.org.lu]
    20. http://www.angelfire.com/in2/mirror/ [angelfire.com]
    21. http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/ [orange.ca.us]
    22. http://www.dynamsol.com/satanix/css -auth.tar.gz [dynamsol.com]
    23. http://batman.jytol.fi/~vuori/dvd/ [jytol.fi]
    24. http://www.zpok.demon.co.uk/deCSS/CSS.ht ml [demon.co.uk]
    25. http://plato.nebulanet.net:88/css/ [nebulanet.net]
    26. ftp://alma.dhs.org/pub/DVD/ [dhs.org]
    27. http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/ [umn.edu]
    28. http://www.logorrhea.com/main.html [logorrhea.com]
    29. http://people.delphi.com/salfter/LiVi d.tar.gz [delphi.com]
    30. http://www.theresistance.net/files.html [theresistance.net]
    31. ftp://193.219.56.32/pub/dvd/LiVi d.CVS-11.06.tar.gz [193.219.56.32] and ftp://193.219.56. 32/pub/dvd/LiVid.CVS-11.06.css-stuff-only.tar.gz [193.219.56.32]
    32. http://merlin.keble.ox.ac.uk/~a drian/css/index.html [ox.ac.uk]
    33. http://www.dvd-copy.com/ [dvd-copy.com]
    34. http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css /css-auth.tar.gz [zip.com.au] and http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/dvd/css/DeCSS .zip [zip.com.au]
    35. http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/css -auth.tar.gz [freeserve.co.uk] and http://www.sent.freeserve.co.uk/DeCSS.zip [freeserve.co.uk]
    36. http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/jvz/ [lycos.nl]
    37. http://joe.to/storage/files/decss.zip [joe.to]
    38. ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/ [firehead.org]
    39. http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/ [lemuria.org]
    40. http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderm an/dvd.htm [theglobe.com]
    41. http://remco.xgov.net/dvd/ [xgov.net]
    42. http://www.able-towers.com/~flow/ [able-towers.com]
    43. ftp://dvd:dvd@206.98.63.136 [206.98.63.136]
    44. http://www.twistedlogic.com/htm l/tl_archive_map.htm [twistedlogic.com]
    45. ftp://mikpos.dyndns.org/pub/cssdvd.zip [dyndns.org]
    46. http://mu nitions.vipul.net/software/algorithms/streamcipher s/decss.tar.gz [vipul.net]
    47. http:/ /munitions.polkaroo.net/software/algorithms/stream ciphers/decss.tar.gz [polkaroo.net]
    48. http://muni tions.dyn.org/software/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz [dyn.org]
    49. http://mun itions.cifs.org/software/algorithms/streamciphers/ decss.tar.gz [cifs.org]
    50. http://uk1. munitions.net/software/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz [munitions.net]
    51. http://209.68.37.134/decss/ [209.68.37.134]
    52. http://muni tions.firenze.linux.it/algorithms/streamciphers/de css.tar.gz [linux.it]
    53. http://www.tasam.com/~fenkt/dvd/ [tasam.com]
    54. ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/ DVD/ [giga.or.at]
    55. http://therapy.endorphin.org/DVD/ [endorphin.org]
    56. http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip [discordia.de] and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-aut h_tar.gz [discordia.de] and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz [discordia.de]

    This site contains some good technical documentation as well as more source code that the DVD consorium's lawyers would rather you not see:
    http://crypto.gq.nu/ [crypto.gq.nu]


    Semi-broken Mirrors
    (These mirrors sometimes work and sometimes don't)
    ftp://134.173.94.44/ [134.173.94.44]

    Broken Mirrors
    (These are listed here for the notification of the people who run them)
    http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderman/css-auth.ta r.gz http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/DeCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/css-auth.tar.g z


    Mirrors shut down by The Man
    (A moment of silence, please.)
    http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/DeCSS.zip
    http://dvdcracked.tvheaven.com/index.html
  • You're missing the point. It's not Bach's Das Cantenerks that you're buying. You're purchasing the London Symphony Orchestra's performance of Das Cantenwerks. THEY paid for the rights to perform/record/sell their performance -- by purchasing the sheet music, paying the sheet music publisher for redistribution rights, etc. etc.

    I believe that the works of the great past composers are public domain -- but only the composition itself. Not any given orchestra's performance of it.



    So, feeding the musical notes into a generation program and producing Das Cantenwerks would be legal, what if I did the same thing with some random Backstreet Boys song? They are 90% synthesized anyways. I bet I could recreate it in in minutes, sythesize the voices of me and/or a few of my friends and voila! My very own copy of some new crap pop music song. Is it legal for me to have that? Destribute it? Sell it? Should it be? Would it become so if the BS Boys died?

    Kintanon
  • I was under the impression that there were some consumer-targetted RW DVD methods, but that they didn't have the full capacity of the pressed ones for whatever reason... and that thus, the industry doesn't (yet) have to worry about people distributing unlicensed DVD disks so much as online methods...

    No, not YET. I think the DVD-R (orwhatever) are missing a GB or two, but the writeable DVD media are still in development, no single standard has 'won' yet. Somehow I think the winner will have large capacity. After all, that is the point of upgrading from CD-R...
    -
  • I assume you're in the US, if not then disregard this message.

    FreeTV works with the european systems which use a different protection method than the US. The european system uses VideoCrypt which actually scrambles the video by transposing and rotating scan lines. The US system just supresses the h-sync in the video. So, FreeTV won't work with the US cable system.

    Theoretically, the US system should be easy to defeat if you have a tuner card which will dump the raw data from the cable. (I think I've figured out how to do this with a bt828 card, but I haven't actually tried it yet.)



    Conceptually I know how to break it, since it's just the scrambled looking thing which is crystal clear, but all swapped around. I just don't have the programming skills to create one. Any idea where I might locate such a program that will work with the US cable system?
    Anyone with info can e-mail me at the above address if you don't want to answer here for some odd reason.

    Kintanon

  • Re:Seems to me the DVD consortium should be illega (Score:5)

    by FreeUser ( 11483 ) on Wednesday November 17, 1999 @07:58AM (#1526350)
    No, you are wrong.

    The idea was to prevent the wholesale copying of DVDs like the CD problem they have in Asia.

    No, you are wrong.

    Wholesale pirates have access to commercial grade DVD copying and pressing equipment, which as another poster noted is not affected by CSS at all.

    Furthermore, wholesale DVD pirates have the option of recording from the analog output, redigitizing the result with only a small loss in quality, and pressing as many unencrypted DVDs as they wish. Minimal effort, minimal cost. Given the kinds of pirated movies that have been sold in the past (taken with a video camera in front of a screen for crying out loud!), quality is not a very important issue to pirates.

    CSS is designed to restrict playback and limit fair use as provided for under the law, including but not limited to making backup copies or moving the data to a more convenient medium.

    The MPAA has plenty of legal recourse, and muscle, to go after wholesale pirates. CSS is an effort to make an end-run around laws permitting individuals fair use, something the MPAA and movie studios can't stand, but have absolutely no LEGAL method of stopping (except by encryption and excersizing the draconian new rights they have been granted in the US through the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which was snuck through on a voice vote during the height of the Clinton/Monica sex scandal.)

    As I noted in another post, I will not be giving any money, directly or indirectly, to Hollywood until such a time as DVD is supported under Linux and their witch hunts stop. Yes, this means I'm making allot of use of the public library, local book stores, and local theaters and comedy clubs. Now that I'm hooked on the latter, I will probably be much less inclined to watch movies again even after the MPAA cleans up their act (should that optomistic expectation actually ever happen), as plays and comedy acts have actually turned out to be much more entertaining than any movie I've seen in the last several years. But that's another story altogether ...
  • If I recall, there was a court ruling that indicated that making copy of software for archive purposes qualified as "fair use", and was therefore legal. Part of the reasoning behind the ruling was the fragility and unreliability of the floppy disks used to distribute software. I'm not sure if the same ruling would hold for software distributed by CD, and I'm pretty sure it would not hold for entertainment distributed by DVD.

    On the other hand, I am not a lawyer, but I feel that the main argument for legality is a strong one. DeCSS is designed to enable private viewing of legally purchased DVD's, and the fact that it can be adapted to enable illegal copying of copyrighted materials is an incidental side effect and does not render the software illegal. Furthermore, it was reverse engineered in a country whose laws explicitly allow reverse engineering for interoperability purposes (i.e. making your DVD-Video work with Linux).

    ----
  • This seems like an odd move for CNet--big companies tend to shy away from such controversy.

    Is it possible that when CNet gets the inevitible Cease and Desist letter from the RIAA, they plan on fighting for their right to distribute the software? That would be interesting.

    Does anyone know of CNet's previous responses to such threats?

    Greg

  • You didn't read the question I was responding to. My point is that the encryption scheme did not exist to get companies to join the DVD consortium, but to provide copy protection.

    Yes, this means I'm making allot of use of the public library, local book stores, and local theaters and comedy clubs.

    I just flew in from Cleveland, and boy are my arms tired. Thank you! Tip your waitresses! I'll be at the Funny Bone in Omaha next week! Drive safely...

  • Nor, for that matter is IP. Both are endowed by the lawmaking bodies of the nations where they exist.

    --
    It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?
  • If somebody was using tempest on me I wouldn't attempt to arrest them. I would get a shield for my monitor/whatever. Second of all, I am not SELLING my monitor emissions. If I were I wouldn't find it strange that somebody would actually use them to reconstruct information. If I were selling my monitor emissions, willfully distributing them, it would be MY responsibility that they were safeguarded in some manner. It would be silly and unproductive for me to attempt to arrest everybody in America who could possibly obtain information from my willfully distributed emissions.

    Also, wiretapping is highly regulated and controlled, and only government agencies are able to do it. If I /were/ sending information that was very important it would only make common sense to safeguard it.

    Since you /can't/ catch all the criminals, the only sensible recourse is to examine your /own/ safeguards.

Slashdot Top Deals

Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name. Thy programs run, thy syscalls done, In kernel as it is in user!

Close