Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: RFC: Niches and new developers (especially xbox)

[Chris Bainbridge]

On Friday 11 June 2004 13:32, Chris Gianelloni wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 17:44, Chris Bainbridge wrote:
> > I do not understand this concern regarding the legality of the xbox
> > gentoo effort. Can you state specifically what your concerns are, and
> > which laws you think are being broken?
>
> Disseminating *any* means of bypassing the "copy protection" or the
> security features of the Xbox are illegal in the United States thanks to
> the DCMA.  As an American citizen you definitely won't see me signing
> off on *any* official Xbox release, as there is the possibility that *I*
> may be held liable.

Actually the DMCA says:

     `(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, 
or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, 
or part thereof, that--

      `(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing 
a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected 
under this title;

      `(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than 
to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a 
work protected under this title; or

      `(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that 
person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological 
measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this 
title.

Neither the Cromwell bios or the linux kernel are primarily designed to allow 
piracy of xbox games. Xbox-linux has a significant purpose other than piracy. 
Both of these would have to be false for the DMCA to apply.

As for mirroring xbox-linux files, that is covered by title ii of the DMCA - 
"System caching", which states that anybody who mirrors something isn't 
liable unless they have received and ignored a take-down notification from 
the copyright owner. Again I fail to see how the DMCA applies to xbox-linux 
here. There has been no take-down notification, and no copyright owner has 
staked a claim to any of the IP in xbox-linux.

In contrast, can you provide a justification for media-libs/libdvdcss to be in 
gentoo, given that it actually decrypts copyrighted works (xbox-linux does 
not), and the DVD-CCA and MPAA have both complained about it? It appears to 
clearly violate your standards for being in gentoo.

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