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Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Posted Aug 28, 2003 16:12 UTC (Thu) by southey (subscriber, #9466)
Parent article: Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Ed Felten's quote is actually not a quote as the link (and other places) doesn't have this text or the same meaning of it. He puts the view that it should be posted because it is a 'public concern'. So the public is also interested SCO's Unix code so why doesn't he post that?


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Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Posted Aug 28, 2003 19:56 UTC (Thu) by cstanhop (subscriber, #4740) [Link]

The two cases aren't the same, and I think you're confusing different "IP" laws (trade secrets and copyrights aren't the same thing). As far as we know, SCO owns the copyright to their code. So, we don't go around publishing it without permission. Pretty simple.

DeCSS is an implementation (expression) of an algorithm that can be used to decrypt DVDs. This implementation was created by an independent author (with some reverse engineering) and released to the public by the same author and copyright holder. As far as I know, there are no patent issues for this algorithm (correct me if I'm wrong), and DVDCCA does not own the copyright to DeCSS (or any of the other implementations that have been made available) and cannot own a copyright to an algorithm. So, even without a 'public interest' or 'public concern', there shouldn't be any reason to prohibit people from posting and reading this code. Except for this trade secret issue, this case would be very strightforward.

Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Posted Aug 28, 2003 20:09 UTC (Thu) by cstanhop (subscriber, #4740) [Link]


I hate to respond to my own post, but I forgot how the DMCA might come into play here. I should go research that. Anyone have any light to shed (or links) about how the DMCA could be/has been involved in this whole DeCSS issue (for those of us in the US)? Man, this stuff seems to get ridiculously complicated at times...

Who won the latest DeCSS skirmish?

Posted Aug 28, 2003 20:57 UTC (Thu) by zonker (subscriber, #7867) [Link]

Ed Felten's quote is actually not a quote as the link (and other places) doesn't have this text or the same meaning of it.

What quote are you referring to??? The text in red (the quote) is indeed at the URL in the story.

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