http://techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/97/942news/encryp.html To summarize, the Digital Video Disk standard contains an encryption standard for copyright and anti-piracy protection. however, "some U.S. PC and silicon vendors have just about abandoned hope of keeping to their revised launch schedules for DVD-enabled systems." ... as far as anybody knows, "none of the U.S. PC vendors today has a license to use the DVD-decryption algorithm" in software. "We all know the situation; we don't have a license," said Michael Moradzadeh, program manager of Intel's copy-protection task force. A solution may be in the offing within days. Some sources said late last week that Matsushita [who owns license rights] and key U.S. computer companies may resolve the software-licensing issues by the end of this week. The PC industry seeks amendments to the licensing-agreement language that would result in equivalent treatment of software- and hardware-based CSS decryption. ... there apparently has been some speculation among the U.S. PC community that Matsushita may be stonewalling on the software-licensing issue so that it can establish its hardware-based decryption solution in the marketplace. --- Nothing in the article suggests that "national interests" are involved. Martin Minow minow@apple.com