DeCSS

DeCSS (the rant)

In my opinion, the Content Scrambling System (CSS) is not a copy prevention system, because copying the raw data is possible without descrambling te content. Once DVD recordables become sufficiently cheap (they will), one could make a zillion digital copies of a DVD movie without ever touching CSS. If your harddisk is sufficiently large (they will sooner or later) you could also store an encrypted DVD on your harddisk, ready to mass reproduce. Oh, you could use DeCSS to make a down-graded version of the DVD in MPEG or DivX that fits on one CD, but for optimal viewing pleasure you'd better rent a VHS copy (and copy it, if you like).
Player manufacturers are not allowed to release a player that can play DVD's if it does not contain decoding software approved by the DVD Copy Control Association. That gives them a mighty firm grip on who gets to play their game doesn't it? DeCSS destroys their game because everyone, including Linux software developers, can create a DVD player using the DeCSS decoding software. And that stings. But they asked for it: the Linux developers failed to obtain a license to create a video player (DVD-CCA did not exist yet in its current form), so they could not get a proper decoding key (which costs a severe amount of dollars) Here's what Andreas Bogk, a Linux Video software developer, writes about that: "when I tried to obtain a CSS license, the information I had was that CSS is licensed by some Japanese company (which by the way didn't bother to respond to my request to license CSS for the purpose of building a Linux DVD player" (taken from here). So some smart people went and found one for free (hey, it's Linux, it has to be free). Other smart people went and wrote decoding software.
As the grip on the player market is not so solid anymore as long as DeCSS exists, the DVD-CCA and the Movie Pictures Association of America want DeCSS to be exterminated at all costs.

This page is a protest against these practices. Powerful industry parties are backed up by the law to regulate the DVD player market. Shouldn't everyone be entitled to create a DVD player, in software or in hardware? And I have not even talked about the ridiculousness of forbidding the posession of software. And I have not even talked about the melangomaniac attempts of United States lawyers to try to apply US law upon non-US citizens.

Decoders (who needs DeCSS anyway)

Download the C decoding program by Hannum: efdtt; it allows for smooth playback
Download the 7-line decode by Winstein & Horowitz: qrpff-fast.pl; a bit slow...
Download from this site: DeCSS for Windows, css-auth for Linux, and LiVid, the Linux Video Player.
The source can be found in the court filings....
You might want to wear a T-shirt with the "offending" code. Order it here!
If you want to find DeCSS at other places, then navigate this list of mirrors,
still cannot find it? Then do a net-search on DeCSS.
A brute force CSS cracking algorithm published on the LiViD mailing list: csscrack.html

Information

Read more about DeCSS, or join #rec.hacking.dvd at the WWCN network.
read the facts for journalists on DeCSS here
Go to the list of topics on Slashdot about DeCSS
a timeline of events
Here are GIF images of the CSS code (page 1, page 2, page 3). Note that it cannot be read by a C compiler, so it's not source code. It's a picture. You can scale it up and print it, it'd make a fine geek-wallpaper.
There are many more physical, audible and visible representations of the program. Especially the audible version makes a nice bed-time story. But one of my favorites is the DVD logo in ASCII art using decss code. Trying to wipe this code off the surface of the earth is really a lost battle!
The DVD Copy Control Association (a "not for profit coorporation" -- do I hear a contradiction?) says DeCSS contains "stolen data" (see their website). But nothing was stolen in the process of creating DeCSS. The Xing DVD player for Windows was reverse engineered, and from what people learned while doing this, DeCSS was created.
Read more on how it was possible that the CSS code got cracked. Here is a german text on the events that took place.
Here's a manual that explains how to `rip' DVD's to DivX. It uses the program "VStrip" which supposedly contains CSS code by `ROTfL', another name than is mentioned in the DeCSS annals. The homepage of the program can be found here.

For you to think about...

Although it is often DeCSS with which the raw data is extracted from the disk, the data is often processed and re-encoded using FlaskMPEG and DivX (howto). Then why are the makers and distributors of FlaskMPEG and DivX not being prosecuted for enabling the illegal copying of DVD's?
Formerly, it was allowed to copy movies for personal use or for backup purposes. USA citizens have now lost that right, because they would need to circumvent the encryption which is not allowed under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Do you think this is a Good Thing?
Under the DMCA and Kaplan's ruling to forbid linking to DeCSS, all search engines that have collected links to DeCSS are offending the ruling. What should Lycos do? Manually go through all links in their index to see if they link to (masked) DeCSS code? And what if there will be 200 "illegal" programs in the future? A law that people cannot abide by is a useless law.
Although it is Xing whose code got cracked, they do not complain, file suit, or stand on their heads from anger. It is the DVD-CCA and the MPAA that slowly turn green. Apparently, the fact that something was stolen from somebody is not so important. DVD's could be copied long before the publication of DeCSS. Decrypting DVD's is what DeCSS now makes possible. And suddenly the DVD-CCA is all over the place. What does this tell you? DVD-CCA does not want you to decrypt your legally bought DVD using a "rogue", non-certified decryption device? Do they have a say in what you do with your computer and your DVD?

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