FC: U.S. government says DeCSS is terrorware

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu May 03 2001 - 08:00:05 PDT

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    http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,43485,00.html
       
       U.S.: DVD Decoder is Terrorware
       By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
       6:16 a.m. May 2, 2001 PDT
       
       NEW YORK -- To the U.S. government, a DVD descrambling utility is akin
       to terrorware that could crash airplanes, disrupt hospital equipment
       and imperil human lives.
       
       On Tuesday, an assistant U.S. attorney told a federal appeals court
       hearing arguments in the Universal Studios v. Reimerdes et al case
       that the DeCSS utility, which the Motion Picture Association of
       America has sued to take off a website, should be banned.
       
       Attorney Daniel Alter likened DeCSS to "software programs that shut
       down navigational programs in airplanes or smoke detectors in hotels."
       He warned: "That software creates a very real possibility of harm.
       That is precisely what is at stake here."
       
       Those dire warnings had hackers sitting in the back of the courtroom,
       snickering. After all, DeCSS was developed by open-source devotees as
       a simple way to play DVDs on a Linux computer.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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