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I finally got DVD movie playback in Linux to work today. In the process I
broke a few laws, but that's what happens when free
speech is illegal. Due to the stupid DMCA and the MPAA's CSS protection
scheme, it's illegal for
me to actually watch DVD's in Linux since it requires a piece computer code that
breaks the encryption scheme on DVD's. The encryption scheme was "originally"
supposed to stop piracy, but it doesn't stop that one bit since it doesn't stop
the copying of DVD's, just the playback. Instead it's more of a control scheme for the
MPAA to control how a person uses the DVD they bought. So much for fair use
rights eh? Anyways the end result is I can't legally watch on Linux the DVD I
bought. But the code required is easy enough to find (which it's illegal
to link to,
just ask 2600. Just search
Google for DeCSS or for some good examples at how futile trying to hide the
code is now, search for decss gallery) and I can now watch DVD movies with no
problems. Unfortunatly it's a bit CPU intensive so the audio/video sync gets off
after a while, but that's what happens when you have an almost 4 year old
computer. And for more DeCSS fun, check out this list of links.
Yeah, that's it for today. Sorry if you thought the DeCSS/DVD/DMCA stuff was
boring, but that's what happens when you read the website of a Linux and freedom
loving geek.
Ok, small update. Since I relieze that for 99% of yall, the first paragraph went
way over your heads, here is the simplified version: Almost every DVD movie made
has an encryption code on it called CSS (Content Scrambling System). This is
supposed to prevent piracy since the movie cannot be played without a special
piece of code to unencrypt it. This step is not noticable to people since it
happens automatically when you put the DVD in your DVD player. Unfortunatly
the program that unencrypts DVD's (so that you can view the DVD) is not
avaliable on Linux. So someone made a piece of programming code (called DeCSS)
to unencrypt the DVD on their own so they could view DVD movies in Linux and
other non-Windows operating systems. This violated the Digital Millinium
Copyright Act (DMCA). The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued the
person who wrote the code, as well as anyone who put the code on the internet or
linked to the code. My problem with this is that I consider computer code to be
free speech, since it conveys ideas. So by suing people for posting computer
code, they are suing over free speech. The end result of all of this is that it
is illegal for me to view a movie on Linux I bought legally since it would
require the use of DeCSS to view. It has nothing to do with stopping piracy, but
is about control over how I view the movie I bought. Hopefully that made it a
bit clearer.
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