CNET News.com: Coalition sues to block distribution of DVD "cracking" tool

Dec 29, 1999, 22:40 (6 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Courtney Macavinta)

"A coalition of motion picture and high-tech heavyweights has sued 71 individuals and Web sites for allegedly circulating a program online that lets people crack the security on digital movie discs...."

"The goal...was not to give piraters the ability to copy DVDs; it was simply to play DVDs under Linux, an operating system the film industry forgot in their efforts to accelerate the proliferation of DVDs in the market," wrote defendant John-Victor Kew II in a message on his Web site."

"Defendants and their supporters, including cyber rights advocate the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), noted the DeCSS program was created using legal Reverse-engineering techniques and called efforts to make the program unavailable an attack on free speech."

Complete Story

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• SJ Mercury/Reuters: DVD industry group sues over copying program(Dec 29, 1999)
• CNN: Hundreds of defendants named in lawsuit over DVD hacking(Dec 29, 1999)
• DiBona.com: DVD Lawsuit Filing -- The Plan for the 29th of December(Dec 29, 1999)
• Wired: Case Hinges on Reverse Hack(Dec 29, 1999)
• Wired: DVD Hackers Hit With Lawsuit(Dec 29, 1999)
• ComputerWorld: Activist defends DVD hack(Nov 08, 1999)
• Linux.com: Of DVDs and Security(Nov 07, 1999)
• CNN: DVD encryption hacked(Nov 06, 1999)
• Slashdot:Legal Actions Against Linux-DVD authors(Nov 06, 1999)