DVDPlayback

Hello. I have been using gNewSense for almost a year now. However, I moved here from Ubuntu and got most of my information on operating it from an Ubuntu manual, considering that many of the programs are the same. However, I been been increasingly working on comitting myself 100% to free software. Getting everything I want to do to work was not really a hard challange, but getting it to work with free software is harder.

I have recently replaced flash with gnash. To be honest, I am pretty satified with the replacement. I'm looking forward to gnash being more stable. Right now it will play, but has a lot of problems pausing and resuming. And games seem to lag. However, it was my understanding that this package is constantly updating and getting better.

I am still looking for a replacment for Java, as far as running Java games on web pages. However, I hardly play any Java games anymore but that would be nice to have as well.

The only two big thing that I'm coverned about is getting 3D to work someday soon, and DVD playback.

I have fallowed the instructions in the manual which has me adding a whole other source.

dep http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

However, I am assuming the w32codecs must be non-free because it seems to be the only thing I am not finding when I am not entering that source.

I am finding everything else needed to play DVDs.

I was woundering if anyone knew of a completely free way to play DVDs. Thank you for your help.

There is free software to do such task. But there is a law that prohibits its use.
In USA and EU it's illegal to play a DVD with CSS, not sure but i think
I you refer to free software it is a way, if you refer to legal and free software. You'll have to think it twice according to your country laws. Here's a story about it.

What does the gNewSense Community thing about it??
Share comments (that's legal) :P

Argh, again >.<

think

Well to be honest I do not agree with most of the MPAA's policies. The media in America is a centralized monopoly and the MPAA was created to protect its vested interests. The film, "This Film is Not Yet Rated," does a fantastic job at describing the secret society that is the MPAA. No other ratings board in any other country is as cloak and dagger as the MPAA is. I believe in digital freedoms. As an American I see the four principles of Free Software as the foundation for carrying the first amendment into the digital world. As we enter an increasingly digital world in this age of information; freedom of knowledge is key to the preservation of freedom; in software, expression, speech, government, and otherwise. I see free software as just as much a political and social movement as a technological one. I believe, personally, that the world may be heading to a dark place. Organizations like the MPAA, Microsoft, IBM, and the leading media and news companies seem to be coalescing in and complimenting each other in ways not seen sense the USSR. The first way to control a populace is information control. To make it illegal to view a work on whatever platform you want to view it on is the very first step to cementing the power to control information flow through monopolization. If the government can so easily puppet information flow; then the masses only know what the government wants them to. One of the leading reasons I support the ideas of the FSF is because I resolutely believe that they are imperative in protecting freedom as we move into the new age where computers play an integral role in our finances, work, play, entertainment, and communications. We hold at our fingertips the most powerful tool ever created by humanity; and it would be the largest shame in the world if that tool is allowed to be chained down by corruption, greed, lust for power, and the dollar.

I agree form today on will make more of an effort to reject proprietary formats, software, firmware, drivers and not encourage their use buy my friends and family. I will help them not keep them ignorant, by giving them burned copies of free software. We all have a responsibility to do what is ethical and every thing we do makes a difference for future generations. I am willing to give up watching dvd's because the Digital mellinium copyright act makes it illegal to watch dvds on gnewsense.

The idea of giving up watching DVDs is a personal choice we all must make. While it may be illegal, I need to research this topic better, law itself does not always agree with morality. Often cited is when segregation was put into place for blacks and whites in America. It was illegal for black people to sit in certain parts of the bus, or drink from certain water fountains. But those laws didn't make segregating right; they just made segragation legal. Each of us need to decide for ourselves if we will abide by the law or not. I believe it is more important to do what is right, and to not adhere to laws that are not created with common sense, and do not protect the public interest. These laws only benefit the rich and make them richer. They do not protect against illegal copying and they do not benefit all people. To that extent, I am watching DVDs, of which I paied for, on a DVD player, of which I got for Christmas and my parents paid for. If the law deems that to be wrong, then I suppose I am in violation for watching movies I legally own on a physical player I legally own; all because I watch them on gNewSense instead of Windows or Mac. I hope one day the laws will be changed to reflect rationality and the common good, instead of corporate interest and greed. But, until that day comes, I am not going to torture myself by avoiding movies. I was a movie major, and to be frank, plan to study at technical school mass media and film. I refuse to ignore what may be my future bread and butter, and ignore one of my favorite forms of entertainment, because the film world decides to be greedy. That is my stance on the topic.

I have looked into it, and DVDs play fine. Also, one has to look at practicalities twofold. One, the sites distributing the software are far more likely targets for litigation than any one person. There isn't much money in making an example of one person; that's why I don't think they do it that often. Also, from a common sense perspective, it's hard to sue somebody for watching legally obtained movies on a legally obtained player. Most people, in general, would agree nothing is wrong here. While technically they could sue anyone who breaks the law and probabily win. I would guess that it is very impractical to do it by person to person bases. The costs would be high and the return would be little. If they want to get rid of CSS, they're far more likely to target the sites hosting CSS than they are trying to find each person who illegally watches movies with it.

I agree with you some policies are not created to do what is ethical or best for the community. Often times it is the big business interests and lobby groups who the policy benefits. It is an unfortunate situation but often happens because in some countries the dollar or currency is the biggest vote not the ballot. Yes when policy is unethical we should not abide by it even if it is illegal because sometimes you cannot change the law. I chose not to break the law in my home country and watch DVD's on gNewSense, instead I chose to boycott DVDs and other proprietary matierial from the MPAA. Hit them in the pocket book.

Looking at this in more detail, is it still illegal to run CSS? Maybe I am not reading this correctly. I got the fallowing from this link.

(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html)

"Neutralizing Laws That Prohibit Free Software – But Not Forbidding DRM

You're probably familiar with the Digital Restrictions Mismanagement (DRM) on DVDs and other media. You're probably also familiar with the laws that make it illegal to write your own tools to bypass those restrictions, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the European Union Copyright Directive. Nobody should be able to stop you from writing any code that you want, and GPLv3 protects this right for you.

It's always possible to use GPLed code to write software that implements DRM. However, if someone does that with code protected by GPLv3, section 3 says that the system will not count as an effective technological "protection" measure. This means that if you break the DRM, you'll be free to distribute your own software that does that, and you won't be threatened by the DMCA or similar laws.

As usual, the GNU GPL does not restrict what people do in software; it just stops them from restricting others."

If I am reading this correctly, and please correct me if I am wrong; I think it might be saying that the GNU GPLv3 neutralizes those bad laws; and thus would allow CSS to be legal again. Am I wrong, or is that what it's saying?

Indeed GPLv3 says that :)

Is the libdvdcss2 or libdvdread3 under those terms? or do we need re-licensing?

I can't seem to find any concrete information establishing either package as being licensed under GPLv3 or not.

The fallowing link lists libdvdread3 as, "GPLv2 or later." Does that automatically mean that it is under GPLv3, or is that just assuming?

http://www.novell.com/products/linuxpackages/opensuse/libdvdread3.html

In trying to find any concrete information on the status of libdvdcss2, I was unable to find anything meaningful that was also current.

Many things dated 2006 and before hand spoke of the many ways it is perceived as illegal, while at the same time, speaking on how this perception is a lie built on fallacies. Basically, the people creating the encryption say it somehow, "protects," the companies from copying DVDs. Then people who know computers retort that a DVD can be copied anyway, even without decoding the encryption. Then it seems that, to the legal people, it doesn't matter and the library stays somewhat illegal/gray area. Then the sites go onto to ask if it is for patent reasons that the library is not included. Then everyone washes their hands of everything, sticks a disclaimer on it to protect themselves, then tell each other where they can all go and download it anyway.

In short, as of 2006 nobody really knew if it was legal or not so they all just put a disclaimer on it and used it.

It seems to me that this entire convoluted mess would just disappear if these libraries were re-licensed under GPLv3. Who do we contact in order to get this to happen? How will we know when it goes through?

There is a script that you can run that will install libdvdcss. According to Wikipedia, libdvdcss is licensed under the GPL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

Run this command:

$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

Now you should be able to play CSS encumbered DVDs. totem-xine is a good DVD player that is in the repositories.