Linux Journal: Return of the Hacker

[ Thanks to Edward
Marsden for this link. ]

“Hacker and civil libertarian protest against the MPAA
scheduled for today, Friday, February 4, 2000.”

“At movie theaters all over the world, hackers, civil
libertarians, Linux enthusiasts and their friends will be passing
out this flyer to movie-goers and passers-by in protest of the
recent actions taken against the Linux community, DeCSS author Jon
Lech Johansen, DVD users, and technological freedom in general.

“The DVD-CCA (DVD Copy Control Association) developed a weak
encryption scheme which it intended to use in order to have
complete control over the DVD player market. Manufacturers of DVD
players would have to pay heavy licensing fees, and would have to
submit their players to being able to play only certain DVDs
(according to regional encoding). The industry enjoys releasing
movies in the U.S. at middle-range prices, and then releasing them
at a higher price six months later in Europe, something which it
has been able to do owing to the different formats used by American
and European VHS. With DVDs, one could theoretically buy a DVD in
America and play it in Europe, China, India or New Zealand.
However, regional encoding, though illegal according to
international trade laws and the internal laws of many nations,
would have enabled the industry to prevent American DVDs from
working anywhere but America–in other words, a clever restriction
against free trade.”

Complete
story.