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libdvdcss"

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How the US Copyright office see it: http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2015/80fr65944.pdf

Intro

This page tries to collect some facts and opinions about a possible inclusion of libdvdcss in RPM Fusion.

libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption.

In practice, it allows to play commercial DVDs on Linux and others OS.

For more details, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

It was once (and might still be) controversial, and as such, was the only package left out of the Livna/Freshrpms/Dribble merger that was at the origin of RPM Fusion.

It was agreed at this time that Livna would stay only to distribute libdvdcss.

However, Livna is now dead, and RPM Fusion could be the new home for libdvdcss.

NOTE : Please keep in mind none of us are lawyers, so this is purely best judgment interpretation, and not a legal advice.

How libdvdcss works and legal consequences

libdvdcss performs CSS descrambling on the fly, by either using a generated list off keys or brute-forcing the keys.

CSS encryption might be considered a copy protection.

As such, breaking CSS might be considered copy protection circumvention.

However, the fact that it is so easily broken disqualified it as an efficient copy protection.

How the US Copyright office see it: http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2015/80fr65944.pdf

What distributing libdvdcss means for various categories of people

Infra

RPM Fusion servers are located in France and as such, French laws apply.

The organization hosting the code for libdvdcss is Videolan and it is also based in France.

According to them, libdvdcss is legal in France.

http://www.videolan.org/legal.html

Based on this, one could think libdvdcss could be packaged and distributed in RPM Fusion.

However, if this isn't a correct interpretation or if RPM Fusion get sued over this, then the most exposed people would be the one running the infra.

As such, their agreement or disagreement holds a lot of weight.

Maybe Videolan could provide some legal guidance on this ?

Contributors

Some contributors could be opposed to keep contributing to RPM Fusion.

That was one of the main concern leading to keep libdvdcss out of RPM Fusion when it was created.

We shall seek for their opinion, and carefully weight every contributors opinion on the matter.

Mirrors

Just like contributors, mirror admins could be reluctant or opposed to keep mirroring RPM Fusion.

Fedora

Fedora might be reluctant or forbid to keep linking to RPM Fusion in their documentation.

We shall seek for Fedora Legal opinion on this.

Press

Press and alike might be reluctant or even forbidden by their country law to write about or refer to RPM Fusion.

Users

RPM Fusion users are the one benefiting for libdvdcss inclusion, as they won't have to hunt for another repository to get it from and use the well-known RPM Fusion repositories.