Forty Bit Ain't

Once upon a time in a cold country there existed someone who liked to play with code.  This someone, along with one or two unnamed cohorts from one or two other countries whose weather wasn't quite as cold, was interested in solving a problem.  The problem was that there was not a program which allowed users running Linux to play D.V.D.s on their computers.  This someone was partly or primarily responsible for creating the first version of DeCSS [De C.S.S., commonly pronounced as DeSis].  This first entry into the history of coding and other subjects was not designed to crack the CSS [C.S.S.] in order to distribute copies of D.V.D.s on the torrents.  This first entry was designed so that way Linux users could play their legally owned copies of D.V.D.s on their Linux-running computers.

For his troubles, the young man was arrested and interrogated for seven hours without a food break.  The young man's father was questioned at home because he was ill.  This action caused a big outcry among bunches of people, but being way back in or around 2000, this whole thing was quickly forgotten.  The young man had two computers and a cell phone confiscated by the authorities.  For his troubles, he had to go to trial and re-trial, facing two or three years in prison for writing a code.  Wisely, the authorities gave up.  But not without causing more butt-hurt for other people along the way.

Into the fray marched creators of t-shirts and a creator of a neck tie.  The t-shirts and the neck tie featured certain lines of code.  The judge ruled that just because you can put something on a t-shirt, it does not automatically follow that it ought to be protected as free speech.  It is more than likely that you cannot buy the t-shirt today, although links on the net still point to where you used to be able to buy one.  There are some people in the state known as California who are legally enjoined not to wear said t-shirt.  The rest of us may be able to wear it but we just can't find any places to buy it.

The MPAA [M.P.A.A.] is a trade organization which has been formulated to increase the bottom line of Big Hollywood.  Its' members are prominent players in the industry.  The MPAA is understandably invested in the idea that users have no rights to the dissemination of their singular copies of movies and other things which they legally own.  There is on-going dispute about these things.  It used to be back in the glory days that we were allowed to make one copy of a movie or music piece that we had obtained legally in order to preserve said movie or music piece against damage.  In other words, I could take a legally purchased DVD home and make one copy.  I could play my one copy until it broke or until the cows came home.  If the copy broke, I was not out a bunch of money as I still had my original legally purchased DVD.  This consumer protection is no longer a law.  Instead, the MPAA argues that if my legally purchased DVD breaks or becomes inoperable, I have to utilize my filthy atheist bucks in order to buy another one.  Similarly, if I want to watch a movie which I purchased on a DVD format in my living room which for some reason has only an old VHS [V.H.S.] player, I am no longer legally allowed to port my DVD or copy my DVD onto a VHS tape.  The MPAA would want me to buy a VHS tape as well as the DVD.  And if I am radical enough to run Linux, I am just plain out of luck.  The MPAA would have me bow down to the Micro$oftie openings in the walls before allowing me to create or use a player designed for Linus which would strip the CSS from my DVD.  Because, according to the MPAA, everyone is a pirate.  Even those techies who are fans of Linux suddenly becomes a criminal.  Besides this, DVD players themselves will only play DVDs purchased in the zone that the DVD player is designed for.  Thus, my legally obtained DVD of a movie which I brought back from my trip to India will not play on my Untied Statsian DVD player.  The answer to this quandary is obvious.  Purchase a DVD player from the proper zone for each foreign movie I own-- there are seven zones in all-- or S.T.F.U. and forget about it.  The MPAA has a reason or an excuse for every action that they take.  Those of us who oppose the D.M.C.A. which a certain president had signed into law, C.I.S.P.A., A.C.T.A., R.I.A.A., W.I.P.O.,  and all other recent terrifying initials suspect that the bottom line involves profit.

The only bright part of this tale is that the young man was acquitted.  The horrifying part is that he was not a pirate.  He did not intent to distribute a copy of any DVD on the wires to other people who did not legally purchase their own copies.  He in fact did not share any DVDs with his friends.  He only wanted to play his legally purchased DVDs on his Linux box.  Although no evidence existed that he was a pirate of any sort, he was detained and had to go through a trial and a re-trial.  The DMCA does not require evidence of any illegal activity for there to be arrests of citizens of the world.  The disappointing part of this tale is that although as long as I stay out of the state known as California, there are few or no DeCSS t-shirts to be had for any price anywhere.

why the title: CSS uses forty-bit encryption.  Forty-bit is weak.  The word "bit" rhymes with the word "shit".

radical sapphoq on a bit of oft forgotten internet history 
I support the E.F.F.     https://www.eff.org/ 
I read 2600.                  http://www.2600.com/ 

p.s.  Due to the availability of MPlayer and also LinDVD, I believe that DeCSS is no longer needed in order to play legally purchased DVDs on a Linux OS.


references: 

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/index.html
     http://decss.zoy.org/decss-read.mp3
     https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery                                 /css_descramble_joe_wecker.mp3 
     https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/the_computer_code_hoedown_.mp3 
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/Stego/index.html 

http://decss.zoy.org/ 
http://revjim.freeshell.org/decss.html 
http://www.wrongway.org/?decss


http://www.visi.com/~tneu/mpaafaq.html
https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/dvd-discuss-faq.html 
http://features.slashdot.org/story/00/03/17/166237/feedback-who-owns-ideas 
http://www.bcgreen.com/decss/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS 
http://www.cmosnetworks.com/WatchingDVDsOnAnyGNULinuxDistro.html 
http://archive09.linux.com/articles/38597
http://go2linux.garron.me/play-protectec-css-cd-dvd-linux
http://www.techhive.com/article/34994/article.html 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinDVD

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5050
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5072 
http://www.salon.com/2000/02/09/linuxdvd/ 
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2000/06/36995
http://www.2600.com/dvd/docs/2000/0606-valenti.txt

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/00/04/05/1237247/mpaa-files-another-injunction-against-2600 
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/05/09-f9-legal-primer 

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html 
https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/wiwo.en.html 

https://www.eff.org/node/55940
https://www.eff.org/node/56084 

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/05/31/2045211/drm-how-book-publishers-failed-to-learn-from-the-music-industry 
https://www.eff.org/pages/unintended-consequences-fifteen-years-under-dmca