Re: [SLUG] Quicktime for DVD Viewing in Linux

From: Matt Miller (mmiller1@mptotalcare.com)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 16:04:04 EST


On Tue, 2003-01-07 at 14:28, Justin wrote:
> ?? DeCSS is not the DMCA.
>

No, but reverse engineering/circumventing technology is against the
DCMA, which was his point.

> Again. The "encryption" is nothing but reserved spaces on the DVD that
> the DVD player looks for. The encryption is player-side logic. It's
> like the v-chip: the TV is preventing itself from watching certain
> channels, not the signal.

Justin, everything I read disagrees with your suppositions.

> Read the detailed thread found by searching "DVD organization" at
> www.leap-cf.org list archives.

I don't believe leap is the definitive voice in the DVD community.

I have to wonder why everybody seems to insist that DeCSS is required to
play commercial DVDs. Here's some more links to digest:

http://www.firstlight.net/~clarka/decss/

>From the OpenDVD Web site:

"We don't want to pirate anything, we just want to watch DVDs on our
computers, without having to use Microsoft Windows. This is our legal
right, and we are fighting to protect it."

"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. "

http://www.firstlight.net/~clarka/decss/journalists.html

"However, as this letter clearly shows, the encryption only hinders
playback. It is possible to (illegally) copy a DVD disk without
decrypting anything! You can do this because the decryption is done at
play time and doesn't have anything to do with copying."

"Look, it's like this - a DVD Movie is basically just a message [the
movie] written in secret code on a piece of paper. To read the message
[watch the movie,] you need a secret decoder ring. To be a pirate, you
need a photocopier, but you don't need a decoder ring because you don't
really care what the secret message is, as long as your photocopier
makes nice, crisp copies that your client (who has a decoder ring) can
read. All these guys did was make a decoder ring that works under linux,
because all the commercial decoder rings only run on Windows [or
standalone DVD players]."

http://debianlinux.net/captain_css.html

"bringing to you a css plugin for use with a linux dvd player called
xine.
Using our software, you are able to view all of your encrypted and
locked dvds without even noticing that someone tried real hard to keep
you from doing so... finally dvd playback _REALLY_ comes to linux."

> > Every Linux DVD player of which I know either uses libdecss,
> > libdvdcss, or an internal routine to read the keys from the DVD and
>
> Those are for reading DVDs that were copied without acknowledging the
> reserved areas. Copied.

Again, I don't think this is true. I would suggest you take a Linux
install with a DVD-Rom and temporarily move/relocate all css libraries;
then try to play your store bought DVDs.

-- 

Matt Miller Systems Administrator MP TotalCare gpg public key id: 08BC7B06

-- An improperly trained Samurai dies quickly.




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