Sorry if this topic belongs somewhere else. I wasn't sure if this would fit software better than general or somewhere else.
But anyway, to the question.

There are times, a newbie will ask a newbie question, and here is one of them.
I understand that certain countries has banned such files in allowing you to play DVD's on your Linux OS.
I can understand banning files that can edit, remove or add film onto the DVD.
Now, depending on the OS, mine being Mandriva, I can install a couple files that configures such programs like kaffeine to play DVD's.
The real question is this, if such programs say "play DVD", even though it's "techically" banned, and you have to get files, why even say that in these programs to play DVD's?
I imagine if the OS states you can play them, you should be able to simply play them.
Why not add such files, like "lib(64)dvdcss" and "lib(64)dvdread" while installing the OS, so when the OS is installed, you can simply watch DVD's.
Am I totally missing something? Is this "installing files" the same as popping in the CD software and installing it through windows so it can then read DVD's?
I warned you, it's a newbie question, but to me anyway, it'd make sense to have such files on the CD/DVD, and have those files installed when you install the OS.

if they included all you needed to play dvd's, they would be "distributing a copyright protection circumvention device", or at least could be accused of that, which under the dmca is almost as bad.

edit: added the word protection.

I agree. If you distributed a program that circumvents DVD encryption on Linux (remember "DVD Jon"), then it would violate the notorious DMCA and thus illegal in the U.S. Using the program in your privacy is still legal, as far as I know.

I think that even private use can be considered illegal. The reason is that the law does not allow breaking the encryption, which these add-ons do. Of course, the MPAA and others don't mind it if you break the encryption as long as you pay for that right first. That is one reason that you can purchase a fully legal DVD player though the Linspire CNR warehouse (at least Linspire owners can--maybe Ubuntu owners will someday since they have been talking to each other). Linspire then pays a licensing fee to someone. (I do not know the details, but according to Linspire's Michael Robertson their DVD player has an MPEG license, and they pay the "MPEG guys." You can read the article here.)

I thought I'd paid for that right when I purchased the DVD. Also, I do have a Sony DVD player at home. How would it be any more illegal to watch my own DVD on a Linux box using DeCSS than it is to watch the same darn DVD on the Sony DVD player, which also decrypts it?

Well, I guess this legitimate argument may not fare well against the DMCA.

Well, if you paid for that right with the DVD, there would have been no reason to pass laws forbidding breaking encryption. The MPAA has a very specific and limited view of what you can do with the DVD you purchase. Of course, the reason this all becomes so complicated is due to the fact that the MPAA (and the RIAA and BSA for that matter) are willing to contort laws on both sides of the argument (copyright as well as fair use laws) to their own benefit. In the end, the legitimate customer suffers, the pirate is unaffected, and the entertainment industry looks for ways to further harass and sue their own customers.

You may also know that no version of Windows comes with a DVD player, probably for the same reason that Linux usually does not come with a player for copy protected DVDs. With Windows, you need to purchase an application like Power DVD, which I presume pays a license fee to someone.

It is not illegal if you just watch the movie. It is illegal to publicly show the movie. You can make as many copies of the movie, but only for your own use and not for selling and not to distribute over the internet. I live in the US, I have no trouble of making copies and watching. I am using Gentoo.

With any distribution, you have an option to install DeCSS libraries if you are willing to setup the server database. The DeCSS code for the open source community is written different than the code that is used in commercial products. The open source DeCSS is good as the commercial DeCSS that companies have to pay.

Windows does come with a DVD player. You will have to pay for the rights of DeCSS and to use an MPEG-2 decoder.

Read articles on the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

EFF confirms that you cannot legally use "acts of circumvention" or "tools and technologies used for circumvention" according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), as codified in section 1201 of the Copyright Act. This is one of the reasons, for example, that you can no longer acquire or use DVD Decrypter legally. Further, the EFF page cited below "collects a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors." Further, "In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright infringement."

Check this out:

http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php

I don't have much knowledge in how all this is done, but that could be true. A disc, like PowerDVD has to be installed in order to play DVD's.
LIke Linux, Windows XP indicates you can watch DVD's using media player, but some sort of file, or program, such as PowerDVD has to be installed first.

Just to point out that you don't necessarily need to purchase a player. If you buy a DVD drive, you often get all the necesasary software included. The only problem for Linux is that the player you get (usually PowerDVD) usually only works under Windows.

There were rumours at one time about a Linux version of PowerDVD, but as far as I know if never appeared. Does anyone know anything about this?

Good point. You can get some nice "value add" software--both games and applications like PowerDVD--with some hardware purchases.

Cyberlink announced a Linux version years ago.
http://www.cyberlink.com/eng/press_room/view_239.html

However, it may have only been available to OEMs.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/08...on_linux_just/

Later, they announced that it would be bundled with TurboLinux:
http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.html?i=22274

I do not know if the product is available as a regular purchase, though.

There is a Linux version of PowerDVD. I'm not sure if it's available for any other distro than Turblinux, though.

http://www.turbolinux.com/products/d.../docs/powerdvd

Not really very useful for many people then. I thought they were proposing to work on a more universal Linux version after that version was out of the way, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet.

I would assume that if a Liux version of PowerDVD were released then most DVD drive manufacturers who box the Windows version with their products would also include the Linux one. All we need now is the Linux version of PowerDVD to be released.

PS - what does it actually mean "available only to hardware manufacturers"? Does this mean it only works with Linux-embedded hardware devices, or does it just mean that only hardware manufacturers can buy it, in which case DVD-drive manfacturers could bundle it with their drives?

Everybody in here are pussies. You can watch DVD movies in any OS, but do not distribute the movies to your friends, to P2P servers, data servers, IRC channels, and other forms of media. That is what the law saids in its fine print. If you think you can not, then RIAA and other agencies have brain washed you.

Do you think movie studios care that DVD player companies are making money including DeCSS. I think that movie studios are not getting any sales from MAC and Windows DVD players. They make sales from DVD and VHS tapes. The DVD movies contain a tiny DVD player, so you can still watch the movie even though you did not buy PowerDVD or WinDVD. In Linux, you have the freedom of using any program but at no cost.

The Linux version of Nero is worst than the free CD/DVD recording programs in Linux. I do not think PowerDVD will not be as good as the free DVD players in Linux. Commercial programs have to be static linked in order to work in multiple Linux distributions. The problem with this is it takes about double to triple the memory.

Projects other than DeCSS, also have copyrights. These projects include AC3/DTS, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-3, JPEG, GIF, and the Linux kernel. SCO has given the Linux community the finger because they said the kernel contains code from System V. SCO have not done anything but critizied the Linux community. AC3/DTS and MPEG-1/2/3 is copyright under Dolby Labs and MPEG.org. JPEG and GIF are copyright under jpeg.org and Compuserv. Do you really want to pay the rights for these projects or do you want to pay nothing. Since these projects are open source, none profitable, and they are not copy any code from the commerical products, they are not stepping on anybody's toes.

Please post this over at http://www.doom9.net/. I am sure the video enthusiasts over there would love to be enlightened.

Let me add that you make some good points, but your understanding of law and video leaves something to be desired.