Source: EE Times, www.eet.com. Original Copy By Craig Matsumoto
DVD Copy Control Association Goes To Court Against Code Hack
The DVD Copy Control Association, the licensing agency responsible for DVD security, has taken its case to court against hackers in an effort to stem the spread of hacked code that can be used to thwart DVD encryption. At stake, according to the plaintiffs, is the future of the DVD format itself. But supporters of the DVD hack point out that the DVD encryption was cracked not as a piracy effort but as part of a project to develop a Linux-based DVD player, something the DVD industry itself has yet to tackle. Meanwhile, some are calling for increased proliferation of the DVD hack as a means of protesting the lawsuit. In a lawsuit filed Monday December 27 at the Santa Clara County office of the California Superior Court, the DVD CCA (Morgan Hill, California) sought a restraining order forcing defendants to remove from the Internet the code for DeCSS (Content Scrambling System), a small software program that can copy the encrypted video portion of a DVD disc. The restraining order would prohibit linking to Web sites containing any of this information, and would even prohibit linking to sites which, themselves, link to DeCSS code. The complaint - which activists have posted on the Web at Slashdot.com - lists 72 offending Web sites. Twenty-one defendants are mentioned by name, and five of those reside outside the United States. The DVD CCA has been sending cease-and-desist letters to owners of various Web pages since the DeCSS crack was made public in October. Many have complied , including Jon Johansen, the 14-year-old Norweigan programmer cited in the lawsuit as the first person to post DeCSS code to the Web. Johansen is not listed as a defendant. In a prepared statement DVD CCA representatives said they have worked with the Motion Picture Association to remove from certain Web sites both DeCSS and certain pieces of CSS code. Most defendants were contacted prior to the lawsuit being filed, the exceptions being those who were discovered at the last minute. ""No viable market"" According to the complaint, ""Without the motion picture companies' copyrighted content for DVD video, there would be no viable market for computer DVD drives and DVD players, as well as the related computer chips and software necessary to run these devices and, thus there would be no DVD video industry."" Indeed, some manufacturers have postponed the release of DVD audio players, citing the hole in DVD security. Some manufacturers estimate it will take six months to revamp the security scheme. In addition, the DVD CCA may have filed the suit in self-defense. Incorporated as a Delaware company, the DVD CCA describes itself as a not-for-profit trade association formed to handle licensing administration for the DVD industry. Just as DeCSS allegedly threatens the DVD manufacturers, it also threatens ""the very existence of DVD CCA"" and could lead to the demise of the association, according to the complaint. The lawsuit is the topic of hot debate on Slashdot, a news and discussion site that focuses on Linux and the open-source movement. Some Slashdot postings praise DeCSS as a useful tool while others call for widespread proliferation of DeCSS to toss a monkey wrench at the DVD CCA. Meanwhile, some of the sites mentioned in the lawsuit appear to have closed down entirely, while others continue to exist and to list other ""mirror"" sites where the DeCSS code is available. DeCSS originated with an attempt to build a Linux-compatible DVD reader. One requirement of any DVD reader is that it carry a file containing one of 400 ""master keys"" included on every DVD disc. These keys are used to identify authorized DVD players. In reverse-engineering the DVD specification, programmers found that Xing Technologies Corp. had neglected to encrypt its DVD master key. That discovery helped open up CSS and led to the creation of DeCSS. Part of the DVD CCA's concern is that the creation of DeCSS has also caused some of the inner workings of CSS to be disclosed. The CSS scheme itself is proprietary and must be kept secret in order to prevent DVD piracy, according to the complaint.