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| The truth about the DVD case(last updated March 5, 2000) As many of you probably allready have heard from the news, a 16-year-oldNorwegian boy named Jon Johansen has recently been charged with copyrightviolations for cracking the DVD Content Scrambling System (DVD CSS) andpublishing a piece of code for doing so (called deCSS) on the internet.Some of you might also know that it's two large organisations calledMotion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) and The DVD Control Association(DVDCA) that has sued him and that he might end up in prison for as muchas three years if he is found guilty by the court. They have also sued alarge amount of individuals who have helped distribute deCSS on the net.But what most of you don't know is the fact that the chargesbrought against him and the others are completely incorrect and that theseorganisations have a hidden agenda with this witch hunt. In fact, Jon's actionsare both understandable, moral acceptable and legal. I will here try toexplain for all of you what exactly Jon has done and why this case is soimportant. The reasons for reverse engineering The movie on a DVD disc is encrypted. In order for aDVD player to play the movie it needs to first be decrypted, using one of manydecryption keys. These keys are guarded by an organization called the DVDControl Association (from now on just refered to as DVDCA)and is considered to be their "trade secret". In order to get a key from themyou need to first be accepted, then sign a contract detailing what youmay and may not do with the key and then pay an unknown sum of money.Without a code you can't make a product that plays a DVD movie. Most peopleknow that a very good and cheap way of playing DVDs is to do it on yourcomputer. A typical monitor gives you a more clear picture than all but themost expensive TVs and a PC DVD-player is a lot cheaper than a standaloneplayer.The only problem is that the DVD-player in a PC doesn't have any of these decryptionabilities, so therefore you need a piece of software that has been blessedby the DVDCA. This kind of software is available for Windows and Mac, butnot Linux, BeOS, Solaris or any other operating system. The cracking beginsThe sad part was that the DVDCA and the creators of these "Software DVDPlayers" didn't seem interested in supporting these less common OperatingSystems, leaving their users without the ability to watch DVDs on theircomputers. But the Linux users didn't despair, they are used to be ignored bythe big corporations and solve their problems themselves. It's not acoincident that an unproportinally large number of Linux users are technicallyskilled programmers and hackers.So they did what they had to in order to get their DVDs to play under linux,they reverse engineered one of the windows players, examined how the encryptionworked and started to write their own DVD player. And since Linux developmenttypically is done in a very open and colaborative way with individuals all overthe world taking part, they did as they always have done, they posted thesource code on Internet.At this point it is very important to remember that reverse engineering isnothing illegal, in fact, the right to reverse engineer a competitors productactually enjoys some special protection in many countries legislation since ithelps to spread innovations, keep down the prices and establish standards. The big guys scramble for their guns What happened next is well known, both the DVDCA and MPAA got furious. TheDVDCA recognised that their source of income would go down the drain if theydidn't do something quickly (if the technology was freely available, nobodywould pay their licenses) and the MPAA saw it as an attack on their intellectualproperty, something that would assist pirates in copying and redistributingtheir movies. They are now together trying to perform a witch hunt for anyonewho redistributes the deCSS source code. Sites that provides or links to thecode are receiving threatening letters from their lawyers and more than a dozenpeople have been sued.The DVDCAs response is easy to understand, they fight for their power and, inthe long run, their existence. But I don't think anyone really will be sadif they have to go, nobody loves a parasite.The MPAAs position, representing large parts of the film industry, is a littlebit more defendable though. After all, the film companies do spend billions ofdollars producing films and should have the right to expect economicalcompensation for their work and investments. If deCSS would lead to a largeincrease in film piracy, a large and appreciated industry would be threatened.But I'm pretty sure that isn't the case and so do most people who knows aboutthese issues. Let me present some facts: Some facts about DVD PiracyTechnically you don't need to decrypt a DVD in order to copy it. If youmake an exact copy of the disc (bit by bit), the DVD player won't be able totell the difference and will gladly play your pirate copy.Pirate DVDs have been available for at least a year and can be purchasedfrom various places (don't ask me where, I won't tell you). It's obviously notthese professional pirates that MPAA wants to stop, but you and me from makingan extra copy (which we to a certain extent are allowed to).Movies are allready being pirated and distributed over the internet asVideo CD's (VCDs), only their large size (about 1.5 Gb per movie) has preventedthis phenomenon becomming as popular as MP3s. If you have the right contactsyou can get most movies before they are released on Video or DVD.Pirate tools for extracting and decrypting DVD movies were availablebefore deCSS was released, so deCSS has definitelly not brought something newto the table for the pirates. The pirates didn't need the formula todescramble the movies, they just needed to mock up one of the existing playersso that it gave them the output instead of sending it to the graphics card (atleast that's how I believe they did it). I would rather think that manypirates are mad at Jon for getting these corporations to scramble for theirguns, the pirates will be watched more carefully in the future now when theseorganizations knows that their secret is out...The cost of writeable DVDs are today higher than the cost of a DVD movie.If you want to copy the contents of somebody elses DVD you still need tocompress it (and thus lose quality) in order to make it economically worthwhileand compared to that its much more convenient to just make a VHS copy. Personally I'm sure that copying of film content in a few years time will beas common as copying of music is today, but that's not mainly because thedeCSS code was cracked. Looking at the facts above we can be sure that thiswill happen as soon as internet connections gets fast enough and data storagegets cheap enough, no matter if the CSS code ever was cracked or not. Not all copying is illegalWe should also not forget that not all copying is illegal. You have the rightto make a few copies for your personal use of any copyrighted material you havepurchased. Personally I have a few copies of my favourite CDs, one on casettefor my car, one in MP3 format on my computer at work and one on my computer athome (call me lazy, but it's more convenient to just press a button than gointo the next room to get the CD, besides I'm a bit worried that I somehow willdamage my beloved CDs if I use them too much). These are all legal copies, Iuse them only for my own listening purposes and I have paid for that privilege.It's quite likely that I might want to do something along the same lines oncedata storage is cheap enough (although I wouldn't watch movies when I driveor work of course) and that's probably where MPAA's strong reactions againstdeCSS comes into the picture. The importance of deCSSDeCSS can (when some more work has been done to the program) easily provideanyone with legal means to make their own legal, 100% accurate copies offilms that they legaly own and they don't want that. Both the music industryand the film industry wants you to pay for every single copy you have of thesame material and preferably for every time you play or view it as well. Justtake a look at the support a system like DivX (rightfully dead now) enjoyedfrom the movie industry and the stirup we have seen each time a new recordablemedia like the casette player, DAT, MiniDisc and MP3 has caused. Not to mentioneach time a company has been sued for "making a product that assists pirates"like Diamond being sued for the development of the portable Rio MP3 player.Many film companies don't want their customers to be able to make backup copiesof the movies they have purchased, they want you to buy a new one when theprevious one has been damaged! And every time we see a new media beingdeveloped, we see stronger and stronger efforts from the industry to make itimpossible to copy the content.It's important to stress deCSS' importance in empowering the law obeying citizento make a backup copy of his film. The pirate tools I mentioned above can dothe same, but not legaly since they are hacked versions of commercial programs.If the DVDCA and MPAA manages to convince the court to rule against deCSS, wewill be deprived of our right to make copies of the material we own. It doesn'tmatter if it's our legal right to do, we won't have any legal tools todo it with. This can then very easily set a precendence and we can be sure thatwhatever audio storage technique that will replace the CD will have the samekind of protection, making it impossible to copy or play through an "unblessed"device. But there's even more at stake...But that's not all that's at stake here. If they win we will also have suffereda big loss in our right to both reverse engineer and innovate and it will beyet another example of big corporations crushing the small individuals byblowing up enough smoke to cloud the judgement of both the jury and media. Theytry to make this a case of copyright violation when it clearly isn't and theyare using their money and company strength to get it their way. A clearexample of this is the way they had the Norwegian police to raid Jon's home,confiscate all computer equipment and keep both him and his father for 6-7 hoursbefore releasing them. Both Jon and his father are now awaiting a trial.Luckily, has Jon and the rest of the prosecuted received a lot of supportfrom fellow computer enthusiasts and a non-profit organization called TheElectronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The DVDCA and MPAA probably thoughtthat they could run over whatever defense the defendants could put up (thewording of their accusations and demand for injunctions during the firsthearing of the first accused ones suggested this), but EFF helped provide thedefendants with qualified lawyers. But more needs to be done and I therefore urge you all to do one or more ofthe following things: What you can do to helpSign thispetition in support of Jon and the rest. The petition has nowbeen closed. They got more than 10.000 signatures. Many thanks to all who participated.Download the deCSS code fromthis link.That is the source code that the DVDCA andMPAA wants to stop by making it illegal to distribute it. Even if you don'tknow how to program or have any use of it, please download it and keep it onyour computer. If enough people have access to this code we might get theDVDCA and MPAA to understand that their attempt to censor this information isfutile and drop the charges against those who are on trial for havingdistributed it. If you have a homepage, please put it online.Support the EFF by joining them, makinga donation or linking to their site. They are a valuable organisation thatworks with important issues such as your freedom and safety on the net.Urge people you know to do the same. This is a great opportunity for you to give something back for the work I'veput into BladeEnc. I'm a strong individualist, believing that the right forevery person to investigate, learn, innovate, produce and share their workwith whoever they want is as important as democracy and free speech.Therefore I feel very strongly for this case. Thanks for taking your time to read this.Some useful links if you want to read some more about this case:OpenDVD.org has a lot of facts about DVD encryption,deCSS and the legal aspects on their page, including a journalist fact sheet andan open letter fromone of the defendants to a journalist who had written a badly researchedarticle.The Electronic Frontier Foundation has ofcourse also some information on their homepage.A Linux.comfeature article on the subject with some enlightening comments fromreaders.Eric S. Raymond, one of the most prominent Linux supporters have written astrongly worded articleon the subject at linuxtoday.com.A Wired newsstory on the subject. Also contains links to other Wired stories on thesame subject.Jason Kroll has written a long article called"Crackers andCrackdowns" which puts this case in a much bigger picture. It might be toocontroversial for most of you to swallow, but it clearly describes the worldI live in. If you want a deeper insight into what drives me to spend manyhundred hours every year to develop and support free software, I suggestyou read this article and carefully thinks about what it says. |
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