Re: [SLUG] playing dvd's

From: John Pugh (jpugh@novell.com)
Date: Wed Jan 18 2006 - 11:44:38 EST


>>> On Wed, Jan 18, 2006 at 10:19 am, in message
<200601181019.09276.steve@szmidt.org>, steve@szmidt.org wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 January 2006 02:21, Bob Stia wrote:
>> Uummmm.... Hey guys, supposedly playing encrypted DVDs is illegal on
a
>> computer. Even if you bought and own the disc. Xine & Mplayer are
>> purposely crippled by many distros to prevent this because of legal
>> restrictions/fears. Don't know about Debian and the other distros
but in
>> Suse you have to dump the distro package and get an un- crippled
one. In
>> SuSE you can get either or both at the Packman site. A little
googling will
>> point you in the right direction. You MUST also install a copy of
libdvdcss
>> to play these DVDs or it won't work. Even libdvdcss has been pulled
from
>> many sites in the US and Europe because of these
restrictions/regulations.
>> It is available though. I got my latest copy from a site in Brazil.
I've
>> been watching DVD movies for several years now. (Since 8.2 - now at
10.0)
>
> What I remember of the case is that it is not illegal. Further judges
have
> been slamming down on what amounts to trying to over reach what the
DMCA was
>
> designed for. It's also being held as unconstitutional by the EFF. I
think
> every recent case brought on by the record industry have been knocked
down
> by
> the judges.
>
> The guy who wrote the tool to read dvd's (Jon Leech) ended up winning
the
> case
> on appeal in Norway. Ditto with another case in CA where they decided
to
> drop
> the case for distributing DeCSS. California Appeal Court upheld that
it's
> legal to distribute.
>
> People pulled it because they were afraid to get legally involved.
Even if
> you
> are in the right it's expensive to go to court, as I'm sure you
know.
>
> You can get it and other (legal) upgrades here:
> http://stanton- finley.net/

FWIW...Novell/SUSE was asked as part of our license agreement with
Real, Intel and others to not include the parts that MAY potentially
violate any type of piracy, DCMA, or RIAA "licenses". That is why a lot
of the MM stuff isn't in the distribution, but is available thru YOU
(yast online update) after the fact.

JP
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 16:41:55 EDT