[dvd-discuss] Re: Correction: ReplayTV: Some Citizens Consumers, Some Not

[Derek Fawcus <dfawcus(at)cisco.com>]

On 10 Jun 2002, microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> cartoons produced by the US government would never have been copyrighted

I miswrote.  I understand that they were made by Warner Brothers for the
US Armed Forces.  As such I understood that they were copyrighted for a
while.

> But Derek, you can always take them off the DVD put them on your
> website and hope that the MPAA files another lawsuit in absentia!

Well I was seriously considering extracting the films,  tidying them
up (maybe apply colour),  and converting them to slower frame rate
mpegs - I seem to recall cartoons were generally done at 15 fps?

However,  while I'm fairly confident that these are copyright expired
(I've seen a lot of web reference to that effect),  theoretically to
be sure I guess I'd need to look in the US LoC,  and see if they were
ever registered for copyright?

I suspect that if they are definitly now copyright expired,  no-one
would be so stupid as to persue me for copyright violation.  If they
did,  then given international treaties,  it'd be persued over this
side of the pond.

On 11 Jun 2002, Michael A Rolenz wrote:
>  But it is protected under the title because it has CSS and CSS is used to 
> protect other things and so if it is not protected under this title, then 
> allowing CSS to be circumvented in this instance allows the other people 
> to circumvent CSS for works that are protected.

That is rather the area I would expect pursuit under.  Say I published
some C source that could play this DVD (however poorly) on a US web site,
specifically so that people could view this DVD under Linux.

I could make it specific to this DVD by including a copy of the disc
key sector,  and doing the general authentication,  but only allowing
it to proceed if the expected disc key was found.  I would also only
allow the actual cartoon titles/tracks to be played,  specifically so
that I wouldn't be allowing access to any other content on the disc
which may still be covered by copyright.

I could claim that this is not a violation as the work is not under
copyright protection,  despite the fact that the this is allowed,
I'd expect to have someone pursue me (under DMCA) as a side effect
would be the publication of the generic method of access.

Mind,  not that I intend to do this in the US.  But someone based there
is welcome to do so.  All of the information is available,  and you
can see where you get in court.  I expect it'd have to go quite high
up the court chain :-)

DF