> Overall:
>
> 1. Linux will play normal DVD's just fine.
True.
>
> 2. Linux/Open Source is one of the FEW ways to view a _non-DeCSS-copied_
> DVD.
True.
>
> 3. DeCSS allows copying of DVDs to be viewed in _retail_ players--not
> just Linux.
False - this is the reason that so many open-source advocates hate the DMCA; it would attempt to prevent open-source applications from being able to play a legally purchased DVD using a legally purchased DVD drive.
>
> Bottom line: this so-called "encryption" is _player-side_, not
> media-side. The only thing stopping an "encrypted" DVD from playing is
> the DVD player telling itself not to do so--and open source has no
> reason to do so; it has no affiliation with the DVD consortium.
>
> ?? to do what? To play copied Cd's? That's illegal, it doesn't have
> that. No "decryption" is required to play an originally pressed DVD!
> The "encryption" (which is phony) is only to prevent _copying_.
>
This is all incorrect - DVDs are encrypted at the medium level, otherwise there would be no difference between encrypted an nonencrypted DVDs. Applications that wish to play DVDs have to decrypt them, which means either having keys like hardware DVD players, which the MPAA will NEVER grant to an open-source application because it's only a skip and a jump from software being able to play DVDs to its being able to copy DVDs, or using something similar to deCSS to break the encryption. Every Linux DVD player of which I know either uses libdecss, libdvdcss, or an internal routine to read the keys from the DVD and break the encryption, including MPlayer (which caches them in ~/.mplayer/DVDKeys).
Levi
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