libdvdcss

[Tristan Wibberley]

Usual sort of disclaimer applies: I am not a lawyer and any opinion
expressed is merely wondering aloud and is not advice. All trademarks
are owned by their respective owners (tautologically stupid thing to
say, but that's what people seem to say when they mention a trademark term).

Jerry Haltom wrote:
> Refer to the DVD-CCA. http://www.dvdcca.org/ They distribute licenses to
> use their PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS and TRADE SECRETS in the US and other
> countries. There is nothing public domain about this.


I couldn't find any mention of what is licensed for player or drive
manufacturers except "Confidential Information". But tens of thousands
of people know how CSS works and a simple google search will tell you
how, so I don't think it's a secret anymore.

I could offer you a license for any patents, copyrights or trade secrets
that I hold in the Linux kernel, and you may or may not be allowed to
distribute it depending on other agreements you may or may not have or
may or may not need. Now tell me, does that mean you can't distribute
Linux unless you buy a license from me? Note that I *don't* offer you a
license for anything, this is a for-instance.


> The US at least, and the DMCA specifically, prevents people from
> distributing technology that decrypts DVDs. If no other country prevents
> people from doing this, at least the US does, and Canonical must operate
> in the US. But I doubt that is the case. There some some countries that
> have more draconian laws than US.
> 
> All that stuff about DVD drives outputting analog copies, that was BS.
> There is no such thing. There is only a digital connection from your DVD
> drive to your PC. IDE or SATA.


My parents have a player at home that outputs analogue into their telly.
It decodes CSS encrypted data and I trust that the manufacturer has been
authorised to do so, avoiding action under the UK version of the DMCA.
My questions are who authorised them to distribute such a device, where
in UK law is that person authorised to give such authorisation, and what
distinguishes them in the eyes of the law from Canonical?


There seem to be two problems. Do Canonical, Ubuntu devs, and Ubuntu
users have any and all copyright, patent, trade secret, and licenses for
any other intellectual property necessary to distribute verbatim copies
or works derived from libdvdcss? Do they have the same authority to
authorise the creation of a player device in general and the same
authority to determine the engineering standards that separate a player
from a circumvention device as does the DVD CCA?

-- 
Tristan Wibberley