Update On The Jon Johansen Trial 194
nordicfrost writes "The trial against Jon Johansen goes on. Today, John Hoy of the DVD CCA was examined by phone by the defense and the prosecutor in Oslo. We have set up a page to follow the main events in the trial here, in English. The documentation of evidence, and the fact that Hoy didn't answer the phone when the court called, delayed the trial so the final proceedings may not be finished before Monday afternoon." Update: 12/12 23:50 GMT by T : This wasn't really a Science story ...
Re:I hope they throw the book at him (Score:5, Insightful)
DeCSS and such (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the key here is rather than trying to put this guy away, DVD manufacturers should work with the DeCSS technology to find a happy medium. Obviously, free OS's will need some way to play DVD's, so it makes sense that the technology should expand to include these users. Just putting people on trial in hopes that all these issues will go away is ludicrous. If DVD manufacturers are worried about their products being pirated, imagine the response when the creator of DeCSS gets jailed. This isn't the way to go about it.
Of course, people who can legitimately play DVD's shouldn't exactly be going around DeCSS'ing every DVD and distributing it on Kazaa or your filesharing program of choice. Abusing the technology is just as big a problem as those trying to shut it down.
Re:Good thing You smoking crack? (Score:3, Insightful)
I speak English,Spanish, Portequese, and a smattering of french. Born and bred in the US.
I would say that comment is far from the truth though. Even though Slashdot is a US based site so english the language and maybe the rest of you guys are interlopers. So why should citizens of an English Speaking country, visiting an english speaking site, be expected to speak another language? You like slashdot, so you read it in English.
I tend to disagree with that comment because with all the anti-american sentiment that floats around here that most people are foreigners(Canadians included). So I would say I good many of us speak another language.
I agree that many people in the US dont have another language when they should.
1. They dont see the necessity, as English is the dominant business language in the world. You need it for international business.
2. You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists.
3.The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge. Europe you guys are all bordered next to each other, short hops in between, easy to travel. Easy to learn another langauge.
I think you are trolling. 45% of the US speaks spanish I beleive. We latinos are falling out the woodwork.
And most people on slashdot are fairly intelligent, including us North Americans, well traveled, and gasp, speak other languages.
We aint as dumb as you think. Course then Germans are all Nazis, Italian women are all Harry, I could go on.
Jeez
Puto
Re:I hope they throw the book at him (Score:3, Insightful)
Difference between patent and copyright (Score:4, Insightful)
What Hoy is insinuating here, is that the DVD CCA has a government granted monopoly on anything CSS related. Judge Kaplan bought it, but it's simply not true. If the DVD CCA wanted a monopoly on decoding DVDs, they should have applied for a patent.
I don't know what the law is in Finland, but in the United States it is unconstitutional for the government to mix patents and copyrights.
Re: Pass it along. (Score:2, Insightful)
They buy their AA-weaponry from the guys they are most likely to use them at? Weird.
Re:"Please let my cellmate be gentle" (Score:1, Insightful)
There are hundreds of DVD rippers on the internet, only one of which has valid ethical uses, and only one of which is illegal and is being attacked. That would be DeCSS. Other rippers that piggy back the signal to the video card or just plain grab the information bit by bit and burn it to another DVD are not being attacked by the MPAA and their croneys...why? Because only the DeCSS algorithm can be used to create free DVD players capable of actually playing movies...bye bye information monopoly...bye bye "millions of dollars speant on R&D" for a 40 bit system that can be brute force attacked in less than a week.
If anyone can create a DVD player using the DeCSS algorithm, or one like it, then the MPAA cannot force feed the DVD manufacturers bad licencing terms that cost millions and require they obey region encoding. No law protects region encoding, and in fact it is illegal price fixing. This is the only legitamate reason they have for attacking DeCSS because none of the other claims hold water - anyone can copy a DVD without using DeCSS or ever breaking the encryption scheme. They of course cannot play the copy without decrypting it, which any DVD player will do regardless of if it is a copy or not.
CSS is NOT a copy protection scheme, it is control protection. They have control and want to keep it... it is as simple, and evil as that.
NR
Re:DeCSS and such (Score:4, Insightful)
Whether the defendant is a good guy or a bad guy should be irrelevant in any legal case in a civilized state. It shouldn't matter. It's just not relevant. Bring him to trial for infringement of the GPL instead, or for not being a good poster boy. It's still irrelevant to this case. You're not a good poster boy yourself for free software, and neither am I, Stalin, Hitler, GWB, Saddam Hussein or Mother Theresa. It's hardly illegal.
Of course, if his motives were to pirate films (which I doubt - why would he post to the LiVid mailing lists then?), he could be judged for contributing to copyright infringement. But he has contributed to developement of free DVD players for Linux, QNX, Windows, *BSD, BeOS, etc., just by releasing the source. Breaking the CSS algorithm was the most important thing about DeCSS. Today it's just an old-fashioned prototype to libdvdcss, used in most free DVD players. And by the way, Jon Johansen has [videolan.org] contributed to such players. (Just search for his last name on that page.)
The point is: the priciple of DeCSS is important to the developement of free DVD software. Without DeCSS, no libdvdcss: no xine, no MPlayer, no Ogle, no VideoLAN. We need to break the encryption to read DVD's. And we need the right to do so.
Screw the happy medium. (Score:5, Insightful)
1. They want to recieve license fees for every dvd-capable video player in existence.
2. They want every dvd-capable video player in existence to work by their rules-- i.e., the ones that allow content producers to completely set what it is possible to do with each disc.
I agree, but think you miss the point here:
the linux community" will not truly be happy using a closed source video player-- there will always be the person upset he couldn't play dvds on his 10-year-old sparc because the "approved" propeitary player is x86 and PPC only. But much more importantly, this is a problem because open source platforms inherently empower the user.
That user has every right to be angry, as do you. The DVD consortium has, with help from a few friends, make it a crime for you to figure out how to use your own equipment or even tell others how to do the same. It's a concept that matters and should not be belittled with absurd examples like trying to make a computer that does not have an IDE interface run a DVD player. Trade secrets should have no force outside of a signed contract, and should never trump free speech. My purchasing a DVD player is not equivalent to me signing a contract. "Open" OS only empower users to the extent that they have source code. If you don't have the power to help your friends do things there will be no free code and no Open OS and you will be at the mercy of those who exploit you to maintain tools you can't use.
Re:DeCSS and such (Score:3, Insightful)
As I stated in my post, I fully agree with this. The case against him seems defunct anyway, as they are trying him for copyright infringement laws that don't apply to film. I don't expect to see him serve any time for this, assuming the defense adequately describes what he in fact did.
And by the way, Jon Johansen has [videolan.org] contributed to such players. (Just search for his last name on that page.)
I didn't say he did, but the core of DeCSS he didn't write (as he claimed he did) -- I refuse to sit back while people tote him as the author of a well known software package that he stole from others (namely, the LiViD author, CSSAuth.c) so I post that he was not a saint.
I'm glad he did do this though, because he seems to be politically-minded enough to get a rally of support behind him, including the EFF so that he can walk away free.
The point is: the priciple of DeCSS is important to the developement of free DVD software. Without DeCSS, no libdvdcss: no xine, no MPlayer, no Ogle, no VideoLAN. We need to break the encryption to read DVD's. And we need the right to do so.
Absolutely, I'm in full agreement. But Jon Johansen was not an intrinsic part of this process. His trial serves as a better asset, instead of his code. I believe it will be one more victory leading to our right.
Re:Good thing You smoking crack? (Score:3, Insightful)
The irresponsible parroting of statistics [ucpress.edu] is a far more pervasive and detrimental social phenomenon than American ignorance or arrogance.
American's look ignorant overseas because of a simple phenomenon that is certainly not confined to the USA: Ignorant people are loudmouths. Ignorant people believe their prejudices are facts, and they give voice to every damnfool idea that comes into their heads because they do not know that they do not know anything [apa.org]
It would be best if you took a good look at your own attitudes and inflammatory statements before you accuse Americans as a class, as if there were a monolithic "American" opinion or personality.
I'm not proud of of my country's present administration. My overall impression is that George W. Bush may be one of the least intelligent people to hold the Presidency in many years. I understand that the world is nervous about a "cowboy" President backed by an angry population, and so am I. But remember that while this man appears popular in our polls, this is more a result of our collective outrage than an endorsement of the policies of this administration. Remember he was barely elected, and some still dispute that he was elected. In two years there will be another election, and even if he wins, in four more years he will be out.
Will we start another war? Personally, I doubt it. But let me ask you this: Would there be UN inspectors in Iraq right now if the threat had not been built to a very real level? Diplomacy sometimes has a gunboat component. So even here, while I do not personally know what our government intends, an intelligent person may draw a very different conclusion from the facts than you appear to do.
Ignorance and arrogance are clearly not confined to the United States. The fact that America weilds vast military power does, I grant you, make American ignorance and arrogance of greater import. But even here, consider that North Korea is flexing its nuclear muscles again because Pyongyang (Wow! He knows a foreign capital!) has made the reasonable calculation that we cannot build up the interational tolerance nor perhaps the military capability for two engagements a continent apart. Perhaps America is under greater constraints than you realize.
So this jejune attitude of superiority requires some additional reflection, perhaps, on both sides of the ocean.