[NTLUG:Discuss] MI2 boycott

[Dustin Reyes]

On Wed, May 03, 2000 at 10:27:00AM -0500, Steve Baker wrote:
> Brian Koontz wrote:
> > Please, spare me the rhetoric.  You and I both know the purpose of DeCSS
> > is to make illegal copies of DVD's, just like the intent of Napster is
> > to illegally trade in MP3's.  Don't try to insult the public's
> > intelligence (or mine) by telling them something that isn't.
> 
> No - you are actually ill-informed (although I agree with some of
> your sentiments).  I genuinely believe that DeCSS doesn't either
> help - or attempt to help DVD piracy.  This is the big issue that
> the general public don't understand "because they aren't programmers".
> 
> You can make illegal copies of DVD's simply by copying the sectors
> of one DVD onto another using 'dd' or 'cat' or something - you don't
> need DeCSS to do that.
> 
> What DeCSS actually does is to un-encrypt the DVD into a simpler
> file format (something you can then replay with xanim or something).
> 
> As I understand it, you copy the DVD image onto your
> hard drive using standard disk access routines and then use DeCSS
> to decrypt it so it can be played.  If that's true (I'm pretty
> sure it is) then the act of copying the DVD has already been
> done - and without DeCSS's help.
<snip>

Steve has it right... all DeCSS does is allow you to watch DVD's
*you already own* on playback devices (such as a Linux system)
that aren't licensed as such.

Copying DVD's happened before DeCSS; your DVD player wouldn't be able
to tell the difference between a Hong Kong pirate DVD and the original.

This article does a decent job of explaining the issues at hand:

http://cryptome.org/dvd-bogk.htm

--
Dustin Reyes - crusader at linuxgames.com
LinuxGames - http://www.linuxgames.com
--