If you're reading this, you probably know me. I'm Dylan Flipse. I spend most of my time online, on IRC in a channel called #gifted, reading sites like Slashdot, HardOCP, and ArsTechnica. I define myself as a Libertarian, but identify most perfectly with the Libertarian ideals on social issues (freedoms) than on economic ones. (I don't think it is possible for the US to function without taxes.) I have learned that stupid people do not understand many things, fear what they do not understand, and try to put down what they fear. I think that one thing any intelligent person with a mind geared toward individual and community freedoms is a document called The Hacker Manifesto. It relates the frustrations I've felt with teachers, school administrators, and lawmakers, and those that many people have felt with their parents and law enforcement officials.

I don't like that the Motion Picture Association of America with their lying shit of a president, Jack Valenti, uses blatent propaganda to influence the public and has used their millions of dollars to influence lawmakers in passing of the DMCA, allowing them "total control over the uses made of lawfully obtained material." (From a Linux Journal Article. If you're new to this subject, I especially urge you to read this article.) That is why this page exists.

Grab these files even if you don't own a DVD drive. (Which I don't.)

css-auth.tar.gz- This is a list of CSS codes. You need this for the player to function.

decss.zip- This is the actual CSS decoder. It is used in tandem with the above to unlock DVD code.

I found the above files at a mirror that I found at the The 2600 News Archive. I urge you to download the files, set up your own mirror, and submit the URL to that list. "You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."

The MPAA makes DVDs with an encryption that does two things. They can't be played in a player without CCS (Content Scrambling System), even if you've legally purchased the DVD. I don't run Linux or participate in the Free Software Movement, but I embrace the ideals behind them, and know they need to be supported in practical ways. This is why I've mirrored DeCSS, a program that allows a Linux user to "rip" a DVD to their hard drive and then watch it under Linux. The MPAA is claiming a violation of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and basing their case on saying that DeCSS works to prevent copy-protection. It has always been, without DeCSS, and is still possible, to use a DVD burner to copy DVDs. It's just ass-expensive, cheaper to buy a legal copy. What the MPAA wants to do is control the use of their DVDs, not protect them from being copied. That's what makes me angry.

Part of what they want to do is protect their regional encoding. DVDs are encrypted with a region code. You can't buy a DVD in the US and play it on a player purchased in Europe. You can't buy a player in Asia and use it to watch DVDs sold in Europe. DVDs cost a lot more outside of North America. The MPAA wants to continue getting filthy-richer by selling overpriced DVDs to the rest of the world. They don't want you to be able to take the cheaper North American DVDs to Europe. DeCSS can take care of regional encoding as well.

This is my little part in fighting the MPAA and hopefully the DMCA. The MPAA has suceeded in getting injunctions from judges, forcing some people to take DeCSS off their web pages. Again, they can't stop us all. More mirrors at Free-DVD, Humpin, and DevZero.

flipse.com
By Dylan Flipse,