BID Mailbag: DVD coding

digresssmlOriginally published May 18, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1435

I’m heading out of town shortly and am pressed for time this week, so a couple of quick observations…

In honor of his recent drug-related bust, I invite you all to play the Aaron Sorkin drinking game.

Sorkin’s writing, in both The West Wing and Sportsnight (the latter in reruns at 10 PM Thursdays on Comedy Central… and it’s amazing what a good show it is when you can actually find it) has certain visual tics to it. Sure, sure, we’re used to the Ben Hecht-era rat-a-tat-tat school of dialogue, but I’m referring to Sorkin’s favorite phrase:

“I’m just saying…”

There are acceptable variations, such as “What I’m saying is,” “I’m saying,” and “Here’s what I’m saying.” Considering the velocity with which the characters speak, it’s probably fortunate that they’re constantly clarifying themselves. The thing is, everybody says it at some point or other.

So every time someone says, “I’m just saying” or one of the variants, toss back a shot. Now me, I don’t actually drink, so I always drink a pretend shot. You hard drinkers can, of course, do what you want. Let’s just hope that they never move the two series onto the same night, or viewers could get well and truly plastered.

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I received the following letter from W. Smith at Warner Bros.:

In your most recently published POV, a letter you quoted asserts that CSS, the encryption scheme used in DVDs, does not prevent the DVDs from being copied. The writer could not be more wrong. “CSS” stands for “content scrambling system.” It is an encryption system, the sole purpose of which is to prevent the copying of DVDs. CSS-protected motion pictures on DVDs may be viewed only on players and computer drives equipped with licensed technology that permits the devices to decrypt and play–but not to copy–the films.

As is well known, the MPAA companies (one of which I work for) recently brought suit against Eric Corley, aka Emmanuel Goldstein (the name of the leader of the underground in Orwell’s 1984) for posting on his hacker website (www.2600.com) a CSS decryption program known as DeCSS.

DeCSS is referred to as a “DVD-hack.” Using DeCSS, the CSS encryption software in a DVD can be bypassed thereby allowing copying of the DVD. In August 2000, a federal judge found that the posting of DeCSS on the www.2600.com site violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) because DeCSS was “primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under [the Copyright Act].” The opinion in the case can be found on the 2600 website at http://www.2600.com/dvd/docs/2000/0817-decision.pdf, and the case is now on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. You might want to read the conclusion. Even if you disagree with the opinion (and as a content provider I can’t imagine you would) you have to respect the judge’s philosophical view of the matter.

Regional coding, on the other hand, is a scheme that is intended to prevent DVDs from being played outside whatever region they are coded to play in. One of the reasons for such coding is that motion pictures are not usually theatrically released at the same time throughout the world, and regional coding would permit the release of a DVD version of a film in, for example, the United States prior to the theatrical release of the same film in a foreign market.

Regional coding is implemented in hardware, meaning that a chip in your DVD player is encoded for one of the 6 regions of the world. This coding cannot be changed without physically modifying the DVD player, which is extremely difficult and expensive. If you buy a DVD player in the U.S., it will be hard-wired for Region 1 coding, and will only play Region 1 encoded DVDs which are usually only sold in Region 1. If, for example, you want to play a DVD purchased in Region 4 (South America), then you need a Region 4 player (which presumably you would buy there). As might be expected, there are companies that have sprung up and are in the business of selling “all region” players, which are DVD players that they have physically modified. You can also “defeat” regional coding by purchasing DVD players from all six regions.

Regional coding has nothing to do with copying DVDs, and perhaps the writer you quoted imported that fact into his discussion regarding CSS. Whatever the case, by publishing his letter I am certain that you have unwittingly added to the confusion regarding this matter.

At this point, all I know for sure is two things:

First, I bought a foreign DVD of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon off eBay under the impression that—like foreign-edition laserdiscs—I’d be able to play it over here. I was wrong. And I’m really torqued about it.

Second… with no offense intended, Mr. Smith… I’m sorry I ever brought up DVDs to begin with. The whole point of the column was Harlan Ellison’s battle against copyright infringement. Suddenly we’ve gone off on a lengthy tangent about DVDs, featuring scary phrases like “scrambling” and “coding.” DVDs are ultimately beside the point, and I don’t understand most of the stuff that’s being said anyway, and frankly, the discussion’s boring the crap out of me. In the meantime, I’ve just received word that someone posted the entirety of my Trek novel The Captain’s Daughter over on Usenet, ripping off another of my books. So yours will be the last word on these fricking coding things, and Regions and what-have-you, and let’s remember that everybody should support Ellison in his cause so writers don’t get cheated… I’m just saying.

(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705.)

 

 

2 comments on “BID Mailbag: DVD coding

    1. I envy you that. The Conservative (ie Pro-Business) Canadian government passed a new Copyright law which does allow us to make back-up copy of material we’ve purchased. BUT, only if said material isn’t copy-protected which, since most material is, means they’re having a good laugh at our expense with a law which is useless to the cash customer.

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