Subject: RE: [hackers-il] Re: Your email

From: Chen Shapira <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 14:29:38 +0200

Gilad,

Can you give us some background about the issue? 
What I mainly didn't understand, probably out of my own ignorance, if
there's a problem with having mp3 on the web (of copyrighted music, without
permission), or if there's a problem only if others download them.

If others download them, aren't the downloaders guilty?

I'm not really familiar with those issues, so a good explanation will be
appreciated.

Thanks,
Chen.

---

From: Gilad Ben-Yossef <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 14:55:48 +0200

Hi, 

> Can you give us some background about the issue?

Yes, some background does seem in order. However this case spans quite
more then I could cover in this email. 

The files in question are a copy of the DeCSS and CSS-auth package. You
can read about the issues surrounding these files at
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=decss

The EFF is representing the defendants in the various DeCSS trials. You
can find a lot of material on this subject there as well.

In short - the MPAA is objecting to having these files distributed,
because they show how to overcome the extremely poor encryption used in
DVD players.

While the MPAA claims DeCSS is a copy protection breaking tool, the fact
is that using this software is the only way to view DVDs under Linux,
since no "authorized" DVD software player exists for this platform. This
is not question of copyright material per sa. It's a simple case of
freedom of speech where a large corporation does not like the fact
someone publishes information which it does not like.

Luckily, the law under which this has become banned in the US (DMCA) is
of no relevance in Israel ;-)

Gilad.

-- 
Gilad Ben-Yossef <[email-masked]> 
http://benyossef.com :: +972(54)756701
"every day, computers are making people easier to use"

---

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 15:31:59 +0200

On Tue, Oct 10, 2000, Gilad Ben-Yossef wrote about "Re: [hackers-il] Re: Your email":
>...

Take a look also at http://www.pigdog.threadnet.com/decss/

This page is a joke - this guy was angry on "the recent spate of horrible
witch hunts by the MPAA against people who use, distribute, or even LINK TO
sites that distribute DeCSS", so he created a program called DeCSS that
strips cascading style sheets from an HTML (!). He admits that it is "pretty
much USELESS, but what the fuck. Maybe somebody wants to do that", but
in the mean time he gets a his kicks from getting MPAA threats :)

P.S. I'm looking to buy a DVD player, but having it play all zones is an
absolute must for me. I want to either buy an actual player, or a card
that will work on Linux. I can buy it either in Israel or in the U.S.. Any
recomendations? All DVD players I see sold in Israel don't meet my all-zone
requirement...

P.S.#2 what really pisses me off is that even old movies are sold with the
region coding. I mean, maybe (just maybe) I can understand why new movies
are region-encoded, so that people in Israel won't be able to see american
movies before they are shown in the cinema here. But what about old movies?
I wanted to get "12 monkeys", a movie from several years ago, and it is
region coded... Very very few movies come without the region bit and can
be seen on players anywhere (e.g., "The Sixties" is one such movie).

As Mr. Bad says in the above page: "Start spreadin' the love, eh? And FUCK the
MPAA."

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |     Tuesday, Oct 10 2000, 11 Tishri 5761
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Experience is what causes a person to
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |make new mistakes instead of old ones.