Re: [LI] Re: DVD-ROM on Linux?

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Dec 19, 1999 at 09:34:57PM +0530, Shanker Balan wrote:
> 
> 	BTW: What has "entertainment" got to do with MS. I use ONLY linux and i
> am ga-ga over DVD and related technology. There are lots of us
> desperately waiting for full fledged DVD support on Linux.

This doesn't seem to be an easy one - unless Linux can learn to coexist
with commercial software. The technology is controlled by the movie
and the media industry. Their livelihood depends on being able to sell
content in a controlled way - very similar to the way Bill Gates sells
software for money - also something that is opposed tooth and nail by
the GNU project.

The media industry controls access to the content on the DVD media by
enforcing the licensing in software. As the kids in Norway have demonstrated,
this isn't really a viable way of enforcing the licensing. But the
DVD industry can make the life of kids in Norway hard by 

(a) Making the encryption stronger
(b) Suing them

Ultimately, if you want to watch DVD movies on Linux _legally_, you 
need a licensed DVD player. If that has to happen, Linux has to 
become friendlier to closed source commercial software.

Bunch of prerequisites:

(a) Well defined programming interfaces (Linux kernel doesn't have a
    Device driver interface and whatever exists, keeps changing)

(b) Stop calling LGPL lesser GPL and stop asking library authors to
    GPL their libraries to prevent commercial software from being 
    ported to Linux. Even LGPL has elements which prevent commercial
    software from using the libraries in question - but it is far more
    benign compared to GPL.

(c) Give up on the *all* software should be free ideology.   

(d) A common minimum subset that can be called "Linux" - so that 
    the commercial software authors can maintain their sanity. This
    is being attempted by the LSB project.

I sincerely hope, the saner heads will prevail in the end. Otherwise,
you end up having to pay the "Linux penalty" - sort of punishment for
having chosen to run Linux -  Winmodems, Yamaha sound cards and 
DVD players are just the tip of the iceberg.

	-Arun

PS: Note the difference between being able to read the DVD media and
being able to "play" a movie - which requires decrypting the encrypted
content on the media in real time.
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