DeCSS
DeCSS is a free computer program that is able to decode the content of a video DVD that has been encrypted with the Content Scramble System (CSS) .
The DeCSS-based library libdvdcss from the French VideoLAN team is used today by all known, open-source DVD playback programs such as MPlayer , VLC or Xine to decrypt DVDs.
The documentary Info Wars shows the controversy surrounding DeCSS.
development
The reason for the development of the program, later known as the CSS hack , was originally the impossibility of playing a video DVD under Linux , BeOS or BSD , although the technical requirements were met. At that time, there was no software DVD player for operating systems other than Windows and macOS , because the industry judged the market for players on free operating systems to be insignificant and CSS technology was not licensed for open source software.
Reverse engineering specialists used for their experiments u. a. a software DVD player from the company Xing and extracted its player key from it, whereupon the company Xing was hit by the anger of the DVD industry that they had insufficiently secured their player key. As a counter-argument, it was mentioned that software must inevitably keep its key in memory and is therefore vulnerable to attacks. On October 6, 1999, other groups contributed a CSS module and authentication keys. On this day, the MoRE ( Masters of Reverse Engineering ) hacker group , to which the then 15-year-old Norwegian Jon Lech Johansen belonged, posted an announcement for the first time about their DeCSS software, which "guesses" the 408 access keys within a few seconds Mailing list livid-dev. From October 25, DeCSS was also available in source code under the GPL , and some hackers set about cryptanalysis of CSS, which led to the discovery of serious design flaws in CSS. Special prime numbers were also formed that were suitable for publication and from which the source code could be generated.
DeCSS is therefore a reverse engineering for the creation of interoperability , which was legal in most legal systems at the time (e.g. § 69e UrhG). It has nothing to do with the production of unauthorized copies, as CSS does not prevent this at all.
Legal situation
In Norway, police ransacked the home of Jon Johansen, allegedly involved in the development of DeCSS, and confiscated his computer equipment and mobile phone because he had carelessly posted reverse-engineered software under his real name. The programmer was indicted for developing the program by the Norwegian Public Prosecutor's Office following a CCA complaint demanding two years in prison and a fine. The process ended in December 2002 in the first instance with an acquittal, as Johansen had only written the user interface for DeCSS on the one hand and circumventing copy protection measures for private purposes is not punishable in Norway on the other. The actual decoding algorithm in DeCSS came from an unknown MoRE hacker from Germany. Jon Johansen's acquittal has now been confirmed in the second instance. The plaintiffs waived appeal to the Norwegian Supreme Court. The two instances acquitted the Norwegian because they consider it legal to copy and store DVD films on their own hard drive.
The DVD Copy Control Association (CCA) also sued the operators of websites that offered DeCSS for violating the protection of trade secrets and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for violating the prohibition of circumvention of rights control systems under the then recently amended US copyright law - Law of Websites. In a first decision in December 1999, a California court declined to issue an injunction against the site operator. But in January 2000 the judge revised his judgment. A court in New York also upheld the MPAA lawsuit against three websites. In August 2000, a district court in New York ruled that another website operator was no longer allowed to make DeCSS accessible or to link to other sites that continue to offer it. In May 2001, the New York case went on the second appeal stage. The rector of Stanford University's Institute of Law spoke out in favor of freedom of speech and the protection of public domain goods.
The legal attacks against those making DeCSS available sparked a wave of indignation. Legal scholars and computer scientists intervened against the allegations with expertise. The defense costs were paid for by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which saw the lawsuit threatening the fundamental right to freedom of expression . Support also came from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School , which saw a danger in effectively withdrawing digitized content from public discourse in this way.
In Germany, circumventing copy protection technologies (referred to as technical protective measures in the legal text ) has been illegal since the amendment to copyright law on September 13, 2003 in accordance with Section 95a UrhG, but only if they are "effective"; According to the law in force in Germany, offering, distributing and using so-called "circumvention software" is just as punishable as instructions for circumventing effective copy protection. CSS is a protective device, so DeCSS is considered illegal under German law. However, there may be doubts about its effectiveness, as the mechanism has been deciphered for some time. In 2007 a Finnish court ruled that CSS was not “effective” within the meaning of Finnish law; the latter is based on the same EC directive as § 95a of the German Copyright Act, which is why a similar decision appears possible in Germany. For the time being, however, it is assumed that DeCSS violates German law. Representatives of the music industry research the relevant copyright violations on the Internet and warn of alleged violations with amounts in dispute of 50,000 to 100,000 euros. Nevertheless, there have been no judgments to date, as the film industry apparently does not want to take action against the mass of private users.
Web links
- Touretzky, DS (2000) Gallery of CSS Descramblers (English)
- 42 to distribute DeCSS ways (English)
- Text by MoRE and the DoD group on the CSS crack ( Memento from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
