In late 1999 a group in Norway released a program called DeCCS that allowed people using the Linux Operating system to watch DVD movies on their computers, an ability that the MPAA had granted only to Windows and Mac users. The MPAA has since threatened thousands of web sites and individuals and even have had the 16 year-old author of DeCCS and his father arrested in a FOREIGN COUNTRY after they had willingly removed the program from their server. The MPAA's argument for their actions are that the DeCCS program violated intellectual property laws and allowed illegal copying of DVD movies.
While it is true that the encryption was hacked out by the author, this is not illegal and is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright act as reverse-engineering. In addition, anyone may make copies of DVD's without DeCSS REGARDLESS of the operating system they are using! DVD's are straight data, with a DVD drive and a DVD burned in the same machine anyone can copy the disc and burn it onto a new disk without even needing to read the encryption or data on the disk as anything other than 1's and 0's. To PLAY a DVD you need a player, but to copy you just need a computer with the proper equipment.
In the words on an annonymous poster on a message board, ""Look, it's like this - a DVD Movie is basically just a message [the movie] written in secret code on a 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.]"
What DeCCS did for the first time was give users a choice. DVD's are encoded so that each one is useable for a certain country code only. So if you bought a DVD of a movie that was released only in France or Spain it will not play unless you buy a player for that market. The MPAA stands to lose money if people don't buy DVD players; they get a cut of the proceeds. No more foreign films unless the MPAA decides that it is worth it to them to allow it to be published here or unless you buy a player for each country or zone you want to watch films from. The MPAA's arguments are false and exist only to keep consumers in the dark and under their control.
Backpedal: DVD's don't HAVE to be region coded, a lot of the cheaper ones are not; I'm not sure if this is because the publishers want to spread their product out as much as possible with the minimum of costs (having to do a production run for each region) or if region coding adds more cost to the CCS encoding.
In addition to region coding, there are concerns about how the DVD short circuits your control over what you watch. Are you used to fast forwarding through the FBI warning and commercials? With DVD's that option can be taken away from you. There was also a case recently (see the slashdotlink below) where it was discovered that the DVD encryption was being misused to implant subliminal messages in a copy of "The march is over". IF this is the case that coding would have to have been implanted in the early CCS encryption in order to pull it off, which would mean that the CCS and MPAA PLANNED to have that ability, even though not releasing that ability to the general public is at least a severe breach of trust.
Perhaps more worrisome to me is the methods they are using to try and control and stop the spreading of DeCCS. In addition to getting a foreign national arrested in his own country AFTER he had willingly complied with their requests, they are trying to drag web site owners into court for even linking to sites posting the code. If they succeed in this venture expect to see the internet change very rapidly. No longer will information be free and available, webmasters will be responsible for not only what THEY link to, but what other sites outside of their control have linked.
If the MPAA's actions are successful in this manner and they set a precedent, I will have to immediately remove links to any geocites-type accounts I have; they change so rapidly sometimes that what was once a military history site might now be anything from "Ed's Web Page" to "Martha's tips on surviving breast cancer." I cannot take the chance that one of these sights might suddenly shift to something that is illegal somewhere so that I am now responsible for providing access to illegal information. Open, free surfing and posting of opinions will be a thing of the past.
The first case against 2600.com was decided in the MPAA's favor and they can no longer link to other sites that post the DeCCS code. The case is being appealed. Say what you will about "software pirates" (if you believe the MPAA) but the concept of corporations controlling what you or I link to or even bookmark is just wrong.
I thank you if you've read this far and hope that you will check out the following links to learn more details of what the MPAA is doing and how you can start to protect yourself. We are seeing more and more of our freedoms and rights slip away on the net every day and it is important that we do more than go with the flow. I, for one, am voting with my dollars and have stopped going to movies released by members of the MPAA.
Son of DIVX: DVD Copy Control -From Motley Fool
http://www.opendvd.org/journalists.html -Basic information on the DeCCS case
http://www.2600.com/news/2000/0130-flyer/flyer.html -a flyer to print out and distribute
Home Recording Rights Coalition
http://www.2600.com/ 2600 is getting sued for posting the DeCCS code
http://www.opendvd.org/
http://www.mpaa.org/
/. article on Manipulative DVD's
Gratuitous RIAA link!