Interesting People mailing list archives

IP: DVDCA and the Big Lie


From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 17:32:15 -0500



To: cypherpunks () toad com
From: Anonymous <nobody () neuropa net>
Date: 3 Jan 2000 03:57:50 -0000

...

The real story here, though, is that the DVDCA's central complaint is 
fraudulent. DVD encryption does nothing to prevent content piracy. A pirate 
doesn't have to know how to decode DVDs to make bit-for-bit copies of them 
by the thousands. And no DVD player can distinguish between a legally 
distributed original and a pirated bit-for-bit copy. The amount of 
protection content producers get from DVD is exactly zero. Why is the DVDCA 
lying? That's easy -- because the lie sounds a lot better than admitting 
that DVD is a fraud designed to line the pockets of a few selected players 
in the consumer-electronics industry. The DVDCA's real issue isn't 
protection of the market for DVD films, it's control of the market for DVD 
*players*.




http://lwn.net/daily/esr-dvd.html


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