On Mit, 2004-12-01 at 10:17 +0000, Paul Johnson wrote:
> It's not down to the DCMA, more down to there not being a licenced
> version from the CSS monopoly for linux and us having to rely on the
> vastly superior deCSS code.
Correct, they basically require software to be closed source and set the
copy protection bit on video cards to be licensed the CSS key.
They did not expect deCSS to happen and tried to sue the author for
disclosing information that can be used to make unauthorized copies of
DVD movies. Fortunately the courts in Norway are not that braindead and
declared deCSS to be legal because it is intended to allow playing DVD
discs on operating systems not supported by the movie industry.
> RH also has to be mindful of other countries laws and regs. For example,
> there is some garbage or other over the mp3 decoder being illegal in
> europe due to some unproven patent. Therefore, no mp3 by default since
> RH9 (IIRC).
Having seen the many problems software patents have caused in the US we
have a strong lobby here in Europe that has successfully prevented them
from happening. The MP3 issue must be caused by US patent law.
Tom
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