unity-design team mailing list archive

[Martin Owens <doctormo@xxxxxxxxx>]

The mp3 and DeCSS problems are different...

On Wed, 2010-05-26 at 00:00 +0200, Conscious User wrote:
> > The problem with DVDs compared to MP3s is that they require paying for
> > DVD playback and for MP3s you get 100 free licences so unless you are
> > going for a huge deployment your not braking any laws. 
> > So DVD playback is pay per licence but MP3 is 100 free so its fine in
> > most cases. 

That isn't the problem, this is a rendition of what I know: There is
some mathematical process which has been parented for which encoding and
decoding mp3s requires. No one can check to see if any of the libraries
we use actually infringe on the patents because of triple damages if you
know about patents, but we have it on trust that it's likely alas wholly
unscientific with no evidence. But those patents will run out in a few
years so sit and wait for gif time (gif files used to be in the same
boat but the patents ran out). being hauled into court over patents is a
civil matter, not criminal.

DeCSS on the other hand is a process of encryption which is applied to
almost all DVD videos. If you get a dvd without encryption then ubuntu
will quite happily play it with nothing more than mpeg2 and aac codecs
(e.g. ffmpgeg). In order to decrypt the dvd you need a key from the DVD
Forum who are naturally a bit protective of their incredibly weak DRM,
in fact it's so weak that a European court couldn't really class it as
DRM encryption for prosecution.

DeCSS can be decrypted using libdvdcss which either breaks the
encryption or uses stolen keys. Yay! Since the DMCA makes it a criminal
offense (not civil) to decrypt data in this manner (with jail time of 10
years) it's no wonder that Canonical and other developers are hesitant
about releasing it.

Apparently there are clauses in the US DMCA which allow reverse
engineering for the purpose of compatibility, a safe harbor which is too
weak to protect libdvdcss according to those in the know. The EUCD (the
European version of the DMCA) doesn't have this protection and thus
makes it moot. The EUCD and the DMCA together make libdvdcss quite
criminal in almost every part of the world worth doing business.

Unlike patents this problem will never run out and the only real way to
solve it is to send your representatives letters and such until the laws
are changed or convince the DVD Forum to stop abusing the power which
makes open source impossible.

Again I'm not a lawyer in any way, I just read Groklaw and this is as
far as I understand the situation.

Martin,