DVD Players & these DeCSS Rulings

steve_dum at mentorg.com steve_dum at mentorg.com
Sat Mar 13 04:52:33 UTC 2004


It seems to me that it's now legal to distribute DeCSS,
and it's illegal (in the USA) to use the DeCSS package to play commercially
generated DVD's.

However, since it's legal to distribute and use DeCSS for your own use,
it would be legal to distribute a program that allowed individuals
to record their own personal DVD's using DeCSS encription (to assure
maximal compatibility with DVD players) and of course it's legal to allow
others to view your home generated DVD's with dvd playing software - even
though it contains DeCSS decryption s/w.

IANAL but it's much like the beta max court decision.  Selling a vcr is legal
even though you can use it to make illegal copies of movies, because there
are significant other legal uses.

So lets focus on a program to generate video on a cd or dvd - encrypted
with DeCSS - that should be perfectly legal.
We just aren't allowed use the tool to play commercial movies.

steve

>
>
>Hi,
>
>> > Can you redhat guys bug one of your lawyers and see if we can finally=20
>> > bundle a Dvd player with Linux.  These court rulings seem to allow it=20
>> > now since it's deemed a non trade secret now.
>>=20
>> I suggest you look at the current rulings on DVD copying tools
>
>=46rom memory (and I think we're talking about that company selling DVD
>copying software here), the deCSS technology is not illegal nor is it a
>trade secret anymore (post DVD Jon). However, software which utilises
>deCSS for the purposes of copying (which as soon as you bundle something
>with deCSS in you have access to) is illegal.
>
>It's almost as daft a situation as not being able to bundle an MP3
>plugin for xmms anymore due to some rotter who has decided to patent a
>formula.
>
>Personally, I'd love xine to be bundled with FC2, but I think there is
>more chance of the current president of the USA being found to have
>anything other than bone between his ears!
>
>TTFN
>
>Paul
>





More information about the fedora-test-list mailing list