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. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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