Re: [MLUG] Perl DVD Descramber

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Mike Miller wrote:

> On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Igor Izyumin Jr. wrote:
>
> > A title key is a collection of bits and cannot possibly be considered
> > intellectual property.  The thing that makes this, and all of the
> > other descramblers violate the law is that the judge is paid by the
> > plaintiff and will thus always rule in their favor.  There aren't many
> > other reasons.
>
[snip]
>
> Neil said that the new perl descrambler is not illegal, but many other
> descramblers are illegal.  If Neil was correct, there are two types of
> descramblers -- legal and illegal -- and there is some way to
> distinguish the two types of descramblers.  I'm just wondering what
> makes the difference between a legal descrambler and an illegal
> descrambler.
>
> My thought was that the difference might have something to do with
> which algorithm is used to decrypt the DVD.  It looks like there might
> be several steps to the process with decrypting of one or more keys
> having to occur before the .vob files are translated to decrypted
> mpeg.  If that is correct, then maybe software written to crack the
> keys is considered illegal, but software written to descramble the DVD
> using keys as input is not illegal.
>
> So I'm still wondering if that isn't how the law works.


>From the SANS newsletter:

 --7 March 2001  Seven-Line DVD Descrambling Program
Two MIT programmers have written a seven-line program in Perl that
decrypts and plays DVD movies.  The Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA), which is embroiled in a suit against the on-line
magazine 2600 over their links to sites containing another DVD
descrambling program, DeCSS, is looking into the matter.  Because the
new program lacks the five-byte title key, it apparently does not
violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the MPAA used in
its lawsuit against DeCSS.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42259,00.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5058111.html?tag=prntfr



Doesn't this mean that my guess was correct?  The new perl descrambler is
not illegal because it can't descramble DVD files unless it is given the
disk key.

Mike

--
To manage your subscription, go to http://mlug.missouri.edu/members/edit.php

Archives are available at http://mlug.missouri.edu/list-archives/