I guess one question I have about this whole issue is I like everyone else
in the Linux community believe in open source, but if a company dosen't want
to open it's source what is stopping them from diong a bianary only version
of a DVD viewer, they do that for Windows and Mac's. I guess my point is
that if there is a piece of hardware that I want to use (i.e. DVD) and I
can't get the source code I am willing to use a bianary only piece of
software in order to use my hardware. Do all hardware manufactors not want
to write software for Linux because they believe that if they do that they
have to open their source?
Just my .02 cents worth.
Brad
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Mead <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 5:35 PM
Subject: [OT] DVD reading (was Re: Misc hardware questions
>At 04:05 PM 1/5/00 -0700, Philippe Moutarlier wrote:
>>
>>May I ask : who has the write to read a DVD ? This is getting VERY
>confusing !
>
>There's been a lot of press. I don't know the answer to your question,
>someone owns the rights to licence the DVD decryption technology and you
>would have to speak to them. I believe it's the old story that they want a
>lot of money and a NDA (i.e., you couldn't open your source).
>
>So here's my take on what happened: The (mostly US) entertainment industry
>is all bent out of shape about copyright violations (bootlegs) sold
>(mostly) outside the US and MP3's distributed on-line. They figure that if
>they were getting their usual cut of these products, they'd have millions
>more (i.e., that demand for these things would be inelastic even if the
>prices were much higher and thus that they are suffering tremendous
>opportunity costs--thefts in their view). So they reluctantly agreed on
>the DVD format because it was sold to them as having unbreakable
encryption.
>
>This alleged unbreakable encryption was subject to at least two problems:
>First, it was possible (as is usually the case) for human error to leave a
>gaping back door. Second, to satisfy US munitions regulations regarding
>the export of decryption technology, fairly insecure 40-bit keys were
>involved.
>
>Ok, now the point is that you have to decrypt the DVD before you can view
>it. So any open source Linux viewer would violate the NDA required by the
>DVD folks to licence their decryption technology. Thus no one had made
>licensed Linux software for viewing DVD's because the licensing prevented
>you form opening your source.
>
>So maybe reason #1 above is unfair (what system is really secure against
>human failure?) but that's what happened. One of the legitimate licensees
>of the decryption technology failed to encrypt something. A group of Linux
>hackers discovered this and were able to infer not only that licensee's key
>but also a large number of the others (like 280 of 500). They published
>their open source software as DeCSS.
>
>(This point I'm unclear on: stories quote people in the know as saying that
>DVD rippers have been around for months... So I'm not sure what made DeCSS
>special? Maybe the rippers just ripped but did not decrypt?)
>
>Anyway, the people who thought that DVD was unbreakable apparently "reeled"
>when they found out that the unbreakable decryption had been compromised
>and that they could suffer lots more "theft". So they did a lot of things
>that the Linux community thought were dumb. Like sending threatening
>letters to websites that linked to websites that actually contained the
>DeCSS software. And suing a lot of people. I believe the DeCSS authors
>were all non-US citizens so it's not clear to me whether or how they are
>involved in the suits; but I thought they were.
>
>Meanwhile, I believe the US passed a law that makes it illegal to create
>mechanisms to bypass protections against copyright abuse. There are some
>exceptions and I think the law is not in force yet while some committee
>works out the details of those exceptions. But this law may be used now or
>later against any sort of Linux-based DVD viewer. We'll see what the
>future brings but I wouldn't bet on Linux DVD anytime soon (at least not in
>the US).
>
>You can read the original stories on sites like www.linuxtoday.com.
>---
>Alan D. Mead / Research Scientist / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
>1801 Woodfield Dr / Savoy IL 61874 USA
>217-352-4739 (v) / 217-352-9674 (f)
>
>
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