Legalizing Linux DVD Playback: Why Bother?

“I just finished writing that new book about Fedora 13 last
night, so I’m feeling pretty good right now. It’s nice to have a
project like that put to bed.

“(I’d put up the link, in a shameless act of self-promotion, but
it’s not online yet.)

“Of course, when writing any beginner’s Linux book, invariably
the topic of DVD playback comes up, and I always wrestle with what
to tell new Linux users about the convoluted legal mess that
watching a DVD on a Linux machine has become.

“For those who are unfamiliar, DVDs are encrypted with a content
scrambling system (CSS) that is designed to prevent unauthorized
machines from playing DVDs. What it’s really for, of course, is to
prevent unauthorized machines from copying the content of a DVD, so
illicit copies of Did You Hear About the Morgans? won’t be
distributed freely across the Internet.”

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