FC: U.S. government says DeCSS is terrorware

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,43485,00.html
   
   U.S.: DVD Decoder is Terrorware
   By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
   6:16 a.m. May 2, 2001 PDT
   
   NEW YORK -- To the U.S. government, a DVD descrambling utility is akin
   to terrorware that could crash airplanes, disrupt hospital equipment
   and imperil human lives.
   
   On Tuesday, an assistant U.S. attorney told a federal appeals court
   hearing arguments in the Universal Studios v. Reimerdes et al case
   that the DeCSS utility, which the Motion Picture Association of
   America has sued to take off a website, should be banned.
   
   Attorney Daniel Alter likened DeCSS to "software programs that shut
   down navigational programs in airplanes or smoke detectors in hotels."
   He warned: "That software creates a very real possibility of harm.
   That is precisely what is at stake here."
   
   Those dire warnings had hackers sitting in the back of the courtroom,
   snickering. After all, DeCSS was developed by open-source devotees as
   a simple way to play DVDs on a Linux computer.

   [...]



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