[6318] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: DeCSS Court Hearing Report
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eivind Eklund)
Tue Jan 4 13:12:09 2000
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 18:18:51 +0100
From: Eivind Eklund <eivind@FreeBSD.org>
To: bram <bram@gawth.com>
Cc: Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to>,
"cypherpunks@Algebra. COM" <cypherpunks@Algebra.COM>,
"Cryptography@C2. Net" <cryptography@c2.net>,
John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
Message-ID: <20000104181851.E13922@bitbox.follo.net>
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In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10001031143150.30158-100000@ultra.gawth.com>; from bram@gawth.com on Mon, Jan 03, 2000 at 11:46:48AM -0800
On Mon, Jan 03, 2000 at 11:46:48AM -0800, bram wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Dec 1999, Lucky Green wrote:
>
> > 1. CSS was reverse engineered from Xing's DVD player.
> > 2. Xing's player requires the user to click on a button accepting a license
> > agreement prohibiting reverse engineering.
> > 3. Reverse engineering could not have been performed without accepting this
> > license agreement.
>
> This may be reiterating the obvious, but isn't (3) just plain wrong?
Yes, but there are other errors, too. The license agreement was not
valid for the person doing the reverse engineering, because he is a
norwegian, and this license agreement is in violation of paragraph 39
section i of the norwegian copyright law ("Åndsverskloven"), active
from june 30th, 1995. That's available from the following URL (in
norwegian) http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19610512-002-029.html#39i
This section specifically allows reverse engineering to get
information for product interoperability as long as you have a legal
copy to start from, and cannot be revoked by a license.
Oh, and AFAIK, click- and shrinkwrap-licenses aren't considered valid
here, either.
Eivind.
