osOpinion: MPAA: The Modern-Day Edison

[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]

“As I sit and sift through all the various pros and cons
concerning this whole DVD spectacle, one thing from the MPAA
lawyers caught my attention – they insist that their case has
nothing to do with Linux. Then, I looked at the MPAA’s own history,
and discovered something even more bemusing…”

“They are, all at once, right and wrong. Yes, they are right in
that their supposed main target is DeCSS itself, which was written
for Windows. However, they are dead wrong in their assertion that
their case “has nothing to do with Linux.” It has everything to do
with Linux, and more specifically, the future of Open Source
Itself. First, let us look at the scope of this case, and who
stands to gain or lose depending on the outcome…the answers to
that are rather revealing in and of itself….”

“This leads to the preliminary conclusion that the MPAA’s
lawsuit is a farce, simply because of who is pushing the lawsuit –
the plaintiffs don’t stand to lose any money at all. The MPAA
has one sole purpose: Make and sell movies at a profit. Even
Windows-based DeCSS won’t hinder that, since pirating a DVD would
be impossible to do, as we’ve already proven above. The ones who
have any legal grounds to sue at all are folks like Xing (whose
software was reverse-engineered in the first place), since they are
the only ones who stand to lose money in Windows-based DeCSS.”

Complete
Story