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»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» --DeCSS Controversy-- »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
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	I'm sure you have all heard about the infamous DeCSS.  Well I am here to give you the
correct information about it, and clear up any misconceptions.  Jon Lech Johansen went from a 
vague teenage Norwegian computer programmer to an international symbol of freedom in the last few
months as a result of his involvement in developing DeCSS, the program that allows DVD movies to 
play under Linux and other non-authorized machines.

	First you must understand, the DeCSS utility does NOT promote or aid one in DVD piracy - 
in fact, copying DVD's has been possible since their introduction years ago. In press releases on 
this subject, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has claimed that this is a piracy 
issue and they have succeeded in getting strong cases against a number of sites that had posted 
the program in the interests of free speech.

	Johansen argues that the MPAA has misled the public into believing that his program 
allows people to more easily copy DVDs. "They are claiming that their encryption was copy 
protection," he said. "The encryption is in fact only playback protection, which gives the movie 
industry a monopoly on who gets to make DVD players."  The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which 
is defending the parties in both cases, argues that people have a right to discuss "the technical 
insecurity of DVD" and demonstrate their points through reverse engineering.

	In an interview, Johansen said that police raided his house to collect evidence leading 
from allegations that he violated trade secrets to create this program called DeCSS, which 
cracks the security code in the DVD Content Scrambling System. That, in turn, allows people to 
view digital movies through unauthorized players, such as computers running the Linux operating 
system.  Police seized several electronics, including numerous computers, a cellular phone and 
some CDs. The police then charged Johansen with breaking security to gain unauthorized access to 
data or software. He and his father, whose company's Web site was used to post the program, were 
charged with copyright infringement.

	Many industries have filed lawsuits against those involved with the DeCSS program 
including the Motion Picture Association of America, Columbia/Tristar, Universal City Studios, 
Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and 
Time Warner Entertainment.  The 1998 U.S. law bans the distribution of any "technology" that can 
bypass a copy protection scheme, which this DeCSS utility that clearly does. He ruled that the 
hackers who published it on their sites could not benefit from a portion of the DMCA that permits 
"good faith encryption research." 

	The New York judge who ordered that a controversial DVD viewing program be pulled from 
the internet believes the underground community has put on a very poor case. In a 30-page 
decision released Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan excoriates the three defendants and 
their lawyers for making worthless claims and says the motion picture industry has exceptionally 
strong arguments. 

	Kaplan ruled on January 20nd in favor of the eight movie studios and his opinion offers 
some clues about what his thoughts were at the time. He seemed particularly annoyed that "hackers" 
have tried to spread the so-called "DeCSS" program as widely as possible, in a global attempt to 
distribute the tool to as many people as possible. Copies of DeCSS have even appeared on 
T-shirts.  "Members of the hacker community then stepped up efforts to distribute DeCSS to the 
widest possible audience in an apparent attempt to preclude effective judicial relief," Kaplan 
said. "One individual even announced a contest with prizes [copies of DVDs] for the greatest 
number of copies of DeCSS distributed, for the most elegant distribution method, and for the 
'lowest tech' method."  2600 even made a flyer that explains DeCSS.  This flyer has been posted 
throughout movie theatres worldwide.  

	This is in effect a lawsuit against the entire Internet community by extremely powerful 
corporate interests. The lawsuit and the various actions being planned promise to be a real 
showdown between two greatly diverse sides in this modern age. The consequences of losing this 
case are so serious that civil libertarians, professors, lawyers, and a wide variety of others 
have already stepped forward to help out. 

    For more info, check out http://www.opendvd.org or on IRC (irc.openprojects.net) #opendvd 

-info provided by cnet.com and wired.com

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