current distros for the new user?

[dave at math.mit.edu (David Backeberg)]

On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Ken Gosier wrote 
> My only reservation is something silly. I watch dvd's all the time on my
> laptop, and I'm not sure if all the legal issues have been sorted yet. 
>Is there a dvd player out there that can (legally) play dvd's on linux?

<disclaimer>I'm not a lawyer, nor should this be construed as legal advice 
</disclaimer>

My understanding of the DMCA is that the person who actually makes the 
"violation" is responsible for their creation, but not others who make use 
of said creation. In this case, the "person responsible" was a 16 year-old 
Norwegian, found not guilty in Norwegian courts. The MPAA brought suit 
against people who distributed his work, but I don't know what happened to 
those cases. Lots of absurd things have been illegal and later fixed, like 
counting a black person as more than 3/5ths of a person, aiding a runaway 
slave to freedom, alcohol, oral sex, and voting if you're not a white male 
21 year-old landowner.

At any rate, these days you seem to be more likely to get in trouble by 
downloading music illegally rather than watching dvds you own. I would 
think watching dvds in your possesion would fall under fair use and the 
DMCA would be thrown out for that narrow activity. The other reason that I 
think DeCSS wouldn't survive a court challenge is the ruling that allowed 
us to own VCRs, TiVos, iPods, etc. Basically, the Court ruled that if 
there is a single legitimate usage for such a device, then possession of 
the device is okay, even though a possible use of the device could be 
infringing on copyright. But then again, look at the Supreme Court 
Americans have given themselves. America is NOT 5/9ths Catholic, white, 
and male. Sigh.

So to actually answer your question, you may be able to run a 
Windows-based, proprietary, licensed dvd player within VMWare, but I think 
the law is on your side as long as you're not actually violating 
copyright but just watching legitimate movies.

-- 
David Backeberg (dave at math.mit.edu)