[NTLUG:Discuss] MI2 boycott

[Mark Bainter]

Jeremy Blosser [jblosser at firinn.org] wrote:
> Gregory A. Edwards [greg at nas-inet.com] wrote:
> > Like I said I have not followed every detail or legal breif or warrent
> > issued on this.  The point I was trying to get intelligent people to
> > remember is that (as I understand it) the decryption process (key and
> > algorithum) used in DVD playback is not in the public domain and is
> > owned property.  If I am wrong then I retract my comments on this issue.

Something important to remember here, that I haven't seen mentioned thus far
is that CSS was not copywrited, and is not patented.  Instead, they listed it
as a trade secret.  And according to US law, if someone reverse engineers your
trade secret there is nothing you can do about it.  According to the Uniform
Trade Secrets Act, improper means of obtaining a trade secret are "theft,
bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of duty to
maintain secrecy, or espionage through electronic or other means."  Reverse
Engineering does not fall under that.  Now they are paying for choosing to
make it a trade secret and have no legal grounds.  That's why they are 
resorting to the copying argument, which is also totally bogus.  First, 
according to most current free-trade agreements people have a /right/ to 
copy their own materials.  Preventing that is a violation of that treaty.  
Second, it's not what DeCSS is all about.  I recently came across a great 
example that explains this in very clear terms.

-----
"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.]" 
-----

Note also, that copying dvd's for piracy is just plain stupid.  Blank DVD
disks run about 50$ a pop, plus you have to have a video size DVD writer which
is really expensive.  Alternatively you can go pay 20-30$ for the original
movie with the pretty box.  This is /not/ about the MPAA being afraid of
piracy.  This is about the MPAA retaining control of things /you/ own.