Linux video project evades DMCA, back on Google Code
An open-source project called CoreAVC-for-Linux is back up and running at Google Code after a copyright tangle with a company called CoreCodec.
Google removed the CoreAVC-for-Linux project after CoreCodec said the software violated its copyright in a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) "takedown" letter dated April 30. "We have directly verified by downloading the file from the site provided by Google Inc. that the file does include CoreCodec's copyrighted software," the company said in the letter, available at the Chilling Effects Web site.
Now the project is online again, after the company sent a reinstatement letter to Google on Sunday and posted an apology to project leader Alan Nisota in a forum posting. Apparently, the misunderstanding had to do with reverse-engineering, in which the inner workings of software or hardware are deduced from its behavior.
"The DMCA does allow for reverse engineering for compatibility purposes and hence...the DMCA takedown request was wrongly sent," a company representative said in another forum post.
"Yes, we're back. CoreCodec has given their blessing to this project," a note on the CoreAVC-for-Linux project site said.
CoreCodec sells software for Windows called CoreAVC that lets computers play video encoded with the widely used H.264 standard. The CoreAVC-for-Linux project let existing open-source projects such as MPlayer or MythTV use the CoreAVC.
(Via Dana Blankenhorn.)
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
It made absolutely noooooo sense... The Linux project wasn't about promoting the decrypting of their products. It was about being able to read-- their products.... The fact of the matter is the DVDs themselves have the code encrypted on them, a person could pretty much just copy the whole DVD (with the encrypted code) and do as much damage as having the (decrypted) code to begin with...
Needless to say, if you have something coming from the audio/video out of a DVD that too-- could be very close if not digital quality too and if you record from that stream you've got a decrypted signal of what your viewing because the DVD player was already decrypting the signal in real-time for you to watch it just then........