Studios' DeCSS Suits Criticized

Efforts by the movie studios to shut down Web sites providing the DeCSS program that overrides the DVD copy-protection system have been criticized by legal scholars. In a story in the Connecticut Law Tribune, Commentator Thomas Scheffey quoted legal experts as saying the industry has not shown that widespread publication of the DeCSS program has led to significant DVD piracy. Its primary purpose has been to allow DVDs to run on the Linux operating system, the experts say. Lawyer Avery Chapman, who's defending a man being sued by the studios for posting the DeCSS program on his Web site, told Scheffey if the program is outlawed, ""Linux users would have to go out and buy Windows - and Linux was created in cyberspace, by a community of users, to be an alternative platform to Windows."" Source: CreativePlanet.com