i read about this in a few Boondocks comics, but for the punchline the whole comic was “censored” so i didnt get any info… i know it has to do with DVD encryption
my question, what exactly is it? why is it illegal?
It actually cracked the encryption of DVD’s , so it was made ilegal to have it. The dutch teenager who wrote the cracking software , then went on to print the source code on T-shirts.
Its ilegal because it cracked the proprietary software that the movie industry had cobbled together , so that nobody would be able to trade movies on P2P networks
Declan
Not exactly. DeCSS is relatively useless when it comes to ripping DVDs for illicit distribution. The output of DeCSS being used on a DVD is in the 7-9 GB range, which is absurdly large.
DeCSS’s real purpose was more oriented to producing a DVD player for the Linux operating system.
Also, as an aside, Norwegian law (the original DeCSS program is credited to Jon Johansen, a Norwegian) permits reverse engineering of the type used to produce the program, and the courts have upheld the legality of his actions (the U.S. picture is a bit murkier due to the DMCA, but Johansen cannot be charged here.)
Linux users found themeselves in an annoying position. They had DVD players that they had legally purchased and DVD movies that were also legally purchased but no one would put out software that could legally read the user’s DVD on the user’s DVD player.
DeCSS allowed Linux users to watch DVDs on DVD players, and it did it by cracking the encryption system.
DeCSS was a response to the fact that, despite it being possible, no companies had released software for Linux. MPAA got mad because they get license fees from companies that create DVD software, and those license fees allow the company to read the encryption and the Linux community didn’t pay up.