DeCSS, crypto, law, and economics

[Perry E. Metzger]

Matt Blaze <mab at crypto.com> writes:
> By the way, import region-free DVD players *are* available, quite
> legally, within the US, as are non-region 1 disks.  Kim's video in NYC
> is one source.  They are all unfamiliar off brands, however - you won't
> find Sony or Matsushita (deliberately) producing one.

Actually, that's not true. Kim's sells grey market units typically
made without licenses to the DVD patent portfolio in places like
China, and units that are more legal but that have been cracked. The
latter are supplied with instruction sheets describing how to disable
region coding. Some of these sheets actually say things like "we can't
be responsible for the effects, but if you were to push the following
buttons in the following sequence..."

I am unaware of legal region-free players being generally available in
the US, although I may be wrong on this.

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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