[plug] Open source DVD playback

[Greg Mildenhall]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, alan howard wrote:
> consumers always get hurt , there always have been restrictions due to 
> copyright and patents. that is the way of the western world.

And that is a reason to stand back and do nothing while people are trying
to make the situation even worse? This is the first time since the
introduction of "intellectual property" law that it has been feasible to
remove or soften some of the harmful restrictions, and hence those
profiting from the abuse are moving swiftly to shore up their stranglehold
over their markets and over consumers. The DVD encryption cartel, with
it's associated DMCA/WIPO legislative support, is a bid to place _far_
greater restrictions on consumers and give _far_ greater_ powers to
corporate publishers then ever before.

> and why not. 

Don't get me started. :)

> people that develop technology should be rewarded for there expense,

That is exactly it: they should be rewarded for the work they have done,
they should _never_ be rewarded for minimizing the benefits the results
of that work offer to the populous. That is completely counterproductive.

> but some do tend to become extremly greedy , usually at the expense of
> minority groups, such as , in this case linux users.

Thay do it at the expense of everyone, but the fringes notice it most,
because they know not to attack the mainstream first - there is too much
money to be made there.

> its probably no coincidence that one of the devolopers of dvd also owns
> movie studios and not to mention recording studios, and makes game
> consoles , etc.

No coincidence? Now there's an understatement.

-Greg