[NTLUG:Discuss] MI2 boycott

[Jeremy Blosser]

Richard Cobbe [cobbe at directlink.net] wrote:
> Lo, on Wednesday, 3 May, 2000, Jeremy Blosser did write:
> > - DeCSS was created by Linux users who wanted to be able to view the DVDs
> >   they'd paid for on a platform other than the one the DVDs were designed
> >   to be played on
> 
> Was it really?  I though it was done by a couple of Windows users who just
> though it was an interesting challenge.  I'll agree, the program is much
> more useful under Linux, which has (currently) no other way of doing this,
> but I don't think the Linux community was either the author or the target
> audience.

There has been a lot of confusion about this, probably because Johansen and
co. used Windows in the development of DeCSS.  However, this was simply
because the Linux kernel didn't yet have the necessary support for the UDF
filesystem DVDs use.  So while that was coming they tested what they had
under Windows.  But it was still members of the Linux community doing it
to scratch their own itch.

> > This isn't about software freedom half as much as it's about freedom of the
> > user to use what they paid for in a manner consistent with the law.
> > *We're* the ones trying to uphold the rule of law here, not the MPAA.
> 
> Well, the rule of law before the MPAA/RIAA bought the DMCA, but yeah,
> exactly.  <sigh>

Yeah, but what the DMCA actually means (and whether it will last) is still
up in the air.  This issue is at the fore front of that debate as well.

-- 
Jeremy Blosser   |   jblosser at firinn.org   |   http://jblosser.firinn.org/
-----------------+-------------------------+------------------------------
the crises posed a question / just beneath the skin
the virtue in my veins replied / that quitters never win