libdvdcss2 in the archive

[Martin Pitt]

Hello Benjamin,

Benjamin Drung [2010-07-08  0:14 +0200]:
> libdvdcss2 [1] is free (open source) software. Can we have it in the
> archive (universe or multiverse)? If not, what are the reasons for it?

Unfortunately the dvdcss2 code is illegal in a lot of countries, since
it circumvents the CSS copy protection (well, it's really a reading
impairment, since it doesn't stop copying at all, but oh well).

This is very similar to Ubuntu's patent handling strategy, where we do
ship (potentially) patented code as long as there is no evidence of
the patent being enforced. However, DeCSS was subject to a lot of
lawsuits in e. g. the US [1] or Germany [2], so at least in the past
this had been enforced vigorously.

I haven't followed the progress of those closely in the recent years,
though. If there was some legal resolution that DeCSS was legal after
all, we can rediscuss that.

Thank you,

Martin

[1] http://w2.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/
[2] http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5709/1.html

-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)
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