Legal Status of libdvdcss

[Matthew East]

Apologies for bad quoting *growls at Mark for using html*

I said:

> Debian are obviously happy to provide instructions (and a script) for
> installing it, with a warning

Matt G said:

> I think imagining Debian as a single cohesive entity is not necessarily 
> the best model. On the other hand, I'm not aware of whether incitement 
> to commit copyright infringement is against the law anywhere, so we may 
> be able to get away with it.

Mark said:

> It's definitely against the law in the US - that was the essence of the
> Grokster finding, AIUI. Grokster was behind the scenes actively
> encouraging and knowingly benefiting from the infringement of
> copyright. Hence the end of "rip, mix, burn".

I'm not convinced this is "inciting" copyright infringement, because the warning
 simply informs people of how to read their own DVDs, and warns against anything
more. The question is whether providing a script which points to software which
can circumvent copy protection is illegitimate. On the basis of the deCSS
ruling, it might be, it might not be. We can't tell.

> We need to help people understand the law as it applies to them. In
> different countries, that means different rules. If something is
> genuinely legal in any given country then I think it is fine for us to
> make the tools available, and ask people to confirm that they have
> established that using the tools is legal in their jurisdiction.

This is the debian view. I agree: the key is that in many countries the tool is
legitimate, and in fact I actually think that putting the warning about using
the script in a very visible guide such as the Desktop Guide is in fact an
improvement on keeping it hidden away in
/usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/README.debian. By including a clear warning in the
guide, we are in fact helping people to understand the situation better.

Matt