Hi,

I saw this article in how to geeks website.

http://www.howtogeek.com/138969/why-...al-in-the-usa/

I smell FUD, FUD, FUD.

Fear
Uncertainty
Doubt

I believe the proper response to the questions raised by editorials like this is "I am not a lawyer."

Furthermore:

And how is this different from the situation on Windows, where VLC just comes statically linked against libdvdcss? Especially Windows 8, which no longer includes a license to use CSS decryption?

I don't think that's FUD. The law is pretty clear that breaking copy protection is illegal.
There are similar laws in the EU but I don't think they're quite as far reaching.

SWEET!

http://youtu.be/L397TWLwrUU

It dose depend on just where you live
inside the new "iron curtain" of copyright maximization
the country formally known as "The US of A "

it is , sort of ,maybe , maybe not

the dvd key is an illegal number
but if the license is paid then it is not
some major distros DO buy a license
some do not

so the non lawyer answer is
yes AND no

Which distros? I wasn't aware of any (well apart form Red Hat perhaps) which could make enough money to afford it. Certainly a quick google or two shows only the paid-for Fluendo media player as being licensed and suggests even Canonical don't pay.
Oddly though Canonical say it's legal in the US:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats#Video
I had a quick read of the attached law but I'm not convinced and am sure I have read elsewhere of the illegality of libdvdcss.

libdvdcss does not use a pirated key.

I doubt you'd be arrested for watching Barny and Friends DVD in linux or even fined or ever caught. Obama has more important things to do with his time.

Decrypting dvd's and selling them could get you in trouble.

The United States would have to build many jails, hire staff/guards and etc to lock everyone who plays DVDs in linux illegally or whatever OS. The cost would be astronomical. Non-violent people sitting on their asses in jails on a non-violent crime doesn't contribute to the economy except for the opposite on such a minuscule law.

However, I do agree on what jefro said. You shouldn't redistribute DVDs for profit or other reason without consent.

Trying to load that site crashes my Iceweasle! Apparently it is also illegal to read the article. Ha, ha. (Why does this forum not have a laughing icon?)

Seriously. Most laws of this nature (from what I glean from previous posts) target production and distribution, not end users. For example; it is not illegal to make a copy of music or a movie for personal use, but it is illegal to distribute copies. (Or use one's home as a cinema, and therefore, deprive movie studies of revenue.) That is considered piracy. Which makes sense. It is easier to go after a handful of pirateers than the hordes of their customers. Not to mention the issue of eliminating something at the source, instead of pruning branches while the roots flourish. If it truly was illegal to watch videos on Linux, the authorities would not go after Linux users, but would pursue the programmers who make the packages that allow copying and viewing.

It is a story that will never go away, because entertainment industry executives cannot make the correlation between outrageously high prices for music and movies on one hand, and the popularity of cheap pirated copies on the other. They will continue trying to scare people with, "You may not know this, but it is actually illegal to ..." Excuse me while I yawn.

It is illegal to bypass copyright protection, this much is true.

It is legal to keep one backup copy for personal use.

As such, it is illegal to break copyright protection and watch a DVD by decrypting it. But then, your DVD player does the same thing, and so it is also illegal. Or wait, they have the right to break copyright protection and you don't.

The part you should worry about is mass distribution of copyright protected media. This the MAFIAA really hate, and you will pay a lot if you get caught and may even go to prison. Other than that, they don't really have any way of knowing if you watch movies on your Linux PC or DVD player.

That means my DVD player could be sent to prison.

Region_code = Cell block C?

" your DVD player does the same thing" No, the maker of the DVD did pay or we assume they did pay for either a chip that decodes or software/firmware to decode a dvd. Since the price of a dvd player is like $20, I can assume the cost to license the technology is next to nothing when bought in 100,000 lots.

Decrypting with a key is something other than guessing the key in the first place.
I think the problem is that you'd have to start tracking how many people download it. With the distributed system Linux generally uses it would be a PITA. Although a good initiave would get my backing.
I prefer VLC over Windows Media Player, because the latter does some deinterlacing/post-processing/scaling? making the image a bit fuzzy. It's an outrage that you can't watch legally acquired media on Linux. And that it's considered illegal is a total farce at that. There's this thing called ARccOS that still messes with DVD playback. Fluendo sounds promising, but Fluendo FAQ says:
That basically means that it doesn't have an ARccOS license. The funny thing about ARccOS is... that it's perfectly brute force hackable. In this case it means pirates can pirate, but honest people can't watch a DVD. F#%^$ DRM.