Hello, I plan to package vlc [1], an MPEG2 player which can also play DVDs. There is no MPEG2 Layer 3 support, nor is DeCSS included, so I do not think there are any legal issues with including it in Debian (the license is 100% GPL, no parts of the MPEG group's reference decoder have been included), though I'd appreciate any comments about this.
My main concern is with CSS [2]. DeCSS [3] is not included, but (as I happen to be one of the main developers), I'd like to add support for it so that everyone can freely play all DVDs. I see several options : - no CSS support at all - integrate DeCSS. This would put it at least in non-US, or even into non-free or (even worse) not be legal in most countries outside Europe and would therefore not be possible at all. One of the problems is that DeCSS includes a cracked key from Xing. - implement a brute force algorithm that has been found and which lets you crack the CSS key of a single disk in a few seconds. I think this one would be legal everywhere, but not sure. Has anyone got a clue about what could decently be included into Debian ? Thanks for any pointers, Sam. [1] http://www.videolan.org/ - the VideoLAN project [2] http://www.opendvd.org/ - about legal issues of DVD playback [3] http://www.linuxvideo.org/ - the Linux DVD effort -- Samuel Hocevar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - http://www.via.ecp.fr/~sam/ Do not try and fight the Cabal. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth. There is no Cabal.
