Re:Using DeCSS for piracy with DivX (Score 1)

Don't get me wrong - I still see DeCSS as both a matter of free speech and a valid tool with legal uses, and I do not want to see it lose these court battles, but I do think there is a need to be completely honest here - DeCSS can be a tool for piracy - as well as slashdot needing some devil's advocates to express the dissenting opinion now and then. I don't think anyone would disagree that DeCSS definitely has uses in DVD piracy. However, the judge's (IMO, incorrect) belief that DVD piracy using DeCSS/DivX is going to destroy the DVD industry fails to account for a few things: The files, while a fraction of the size of .vob files on DVD, are still large enough that your average dialup user isn't going to bother trying to download them. The video and audio are markedly decreased in quality. (Granted, this is getting better, but I can still tell a lot of difference between real DVDs and DivX encoded files.) The "extras" that make DVDs so much fun are usually missing from rips. (Last I checked, none of the pirated versions of The Matrix floating around had the alternate audio tracks, or the bullet-time feature, or etc. etc. Then again, I haven't checked in a while.) In other words, I'd still much rather put down the $15-$25 for a good DVD than mess with downloading pirated stuff.