eBay: Burn DVD movies onto CD?

[Riad S. Wahby]

David Honig <honig at sprynet.com> wrote:
> Linux is a well known anti-american operating system. :-P

:-)

Even so, the fact that it's Linux isn't the point.  The fact is, you
have to do some hardware handshaking before you can read the data.  It
just happens that it's via an ioctl interface in Linux, and I only
mentioned that as a specific example.

> Not if you have lawfully paid for the content.

Not really.  Part of 2600's claim is that DeCSS and css-auth allow
people using operating systems without officially licensed DVD player
software (with development cost starting at $20k just for the license
to implement the standard) to view DVDs that they purchased.  The
judge didn't buy it; it doesn't matter that they legally paid for the
content, they're accessing it illegally via a "circumvention device."
The DMCA, according to the court, clearly prevents the use of DeCSS
and css-auth, even in the case that it has a legitimate use, because
it circumvents the access control measures built into the DVD
standard.

> If a cartridge doesn't have (C) SEGA in it, it won't play... ergo,
> (C) SEGA is not protected.

I don't see how this applies to what I was saying.  The reason I
tagged this on is to show that one must authenticate if one plans to
read the data.  Thus, the EBay offering has to use some sort of
authentication mechanism.  If it uses one that is not officially
licensed (read this: upwards of $20k development cost), it is illegal,
according to the court.

I'm not agreeing with the DMCA, or with the judge's decision regarding
DeCSS.  Neither are palatable, to say the least.  The original
question was "can this be done legally."  The answer is: if someone
paid to develop a licensed implementation of the DVD standard, yes.  I
don't know of any commercial software that will read the data from the
DVD and spit out the raw data, encrypted or not, for writing to a CD.
The DVD CCA would never license such a piece of software---its use is
too clearly geared towards backup or, as they see it, piracy.

--
Riad Wahby
rsw at mit.edu
MIT VI-2/A 2002

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