libdvdcss

[Lee Revell]

On Sun, 2006-05-28 at 22:50 +0100, Anders Karlsson wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-05-28 at 18:22 +0100, Tristan Wibberley wrote:
> > Alexander Jacob Tsykin wrote:
> [snip]
> > > That's true, to the best f my knowledge, but it remains effectively illegal as 
> > > none of the major players are willing to risk it.
> > 
> > Many hardware players decode css encrypted DVDs and output the data in
> > analogue, but high quality, form. I am guessing that they are only legal
> > because at least one content producer has said it's okay for them to do
> > this. I wonder if Canonical released an encrypted DVD could they
> > authorise the use of libdvdcss to decode it and thereby authorise its
> > distribution within Ubuntu?
> 
> The hardware DVD players manufacturers have signed license agreements
> and other related agreements (like not letting decryption keys fall into
> non-licensees hands). They may even have paid for the privilege.

Actually I've heard that the cheap no-name Chinese players are
unlicensed and in fact use DeCSS.

Lee