[ Thanks to Bryan Taylor for this
link. ]
“The cyber trial of the century began this morning with
testimony by Frank Andrew Stevenson the Norwegian cryptographer who
first published an analysis of the CSS security cipher. Stevenson
explained it was necessary to independently build a Linux DVD
player because Linux users had no way to watch their DVDs on their
computers the way Microsoft Windows users could. Stevenson
also explained why DeCSS, a Windows program, is necessary for the
development of a Linux DVD player. According to Stevenson, Linux
does not read a DVD’s UDF files so the project had to be tested on
Windows – which is able to read the UDF file format.”
“The movie studios next called to the stand Robert Schumann, who
owns a company called Cinea that receives more than 50% of its
yearly income from the MPAA and the Proskaur Rose law firm.
Schumann stated his expertise comes largely from being the chief
architect of the DiVX security system, which he claimed was a
“better way to rent movies to consumers.” Last year, DiVX failed
when the public rejected its anti-consumer features. Schumann’s
affidavit and testimony that DeCSS was created to be a tool of
piracy was severely undermined on cross-examination by EFF’s
defense team when asked about a report he submitted to the MPAA
concluding that members of the Livid mailing list (where DeCSS was
published) were attempting to build a Linux DVD player.”