Build Date: Wed Jan 14 06:50:08 2026 UTC
I think I need to develop a new character flaw or two.
-- Johnnie Royale
Smash the MPAA through DIRECT ACTION!!
2000-02-02 16:37:18
2600 Magazine is taking the fight for SOFTWARE FREEDOM to the streets of America! Striking a blow against the INFORMATION HOARDERS where they live! Beaujolais to that!
Check this: if you don't know the scoop on the DeCSS decryption issue, man, it's time you DID. Here's the deal: a group of brilliante Linux programmers developed a program that would let you play DVD movies on your Linux box. You would think that the DVD people would be, like, "Beaujolais!" to that, since it saved them a lot of trouble. But no!
See, the dipshits who make DVD movies have this lame, trivial encryption on the disks. The Linux DVD player needed to crack this encryption, using reverse-engineering. Which is TOTALLY ILLEGAL in the United States -- but the crazy cracking was done in Norway, which is a slightly more enlightened country for hacking in. But the DVD people -- including the heavy-weight industry group the MPAA -- started FREAKING OUT and running around BLINDLY like wounded moose and SUING everybody they could find.
There have been HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE hackers-rights violations all over the place. Bunches of people who just LINKED ON THEIR WEB PAGE to the DeCSS code have been sued! Just for having a link! Mother fucker! Also, the poor sap who did some of the first hacking on the project, Jon Johansen, was ARRESTED by ICY VIKING THUGS, and all his computers were seized, and even his DAD was thrown in the NORDIC CLINK! Imagine having to go to jail with your DAD, man. That would blow.
The WEIRD thing is that it's ALL about wanting to watch MOVIES on Linux! Watching MOVIES is not a fucking CRIME! It's not even MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE! It's not like people aren't BUYING the fucking DVDs in the first place -- they're just ASKING TO PLAY THEM on a REASONABLE OPERATING SYSTEM. WHAT is so wrong with that!? WHY does Jack Valenti have CAYENNE in his BRIEFS about this? God damn!
Anyways, 2600 Magazine, who are some of the main defendants in this linking bullshit case, are calling on ALL SOFTWARE FREEDOM ADVOCATES to take this battle BACK to the MAN. They want people to hit the movie theaters of America this Friday with DEMONSTRATIONS and FLIERS and just generally be a PAIN in the BUTT. It's one of those AWARENESS-RAISING things that are so crucially important.
The movie industry has set itself up against the SOFTWARE JIHAD, and only ONE group can come out on top here! Go to the movies this Friday and make sure it's US and not THEM!
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