[MPlayer-dev-eng] Bluray playback

[Attila Kinali]

On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 09:01:41 +0300
Jonathan Nell <crtrn13 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 1) Firstly, is there any way such a patch could be accepted being that
> it will implement AACS (and eventually BD+) decrypting?

Why shouldn't it?
>From the legal situation, i dont see a problem there.
Although copy protection systems are protected by law (thanks to GATT),
the definition of what a copy protection system is, is very narrow
(e.g. CSS does not constitute as a copy protection system and thus
is not protected, not to mention that it actually violates local
copyright law) and it's not clear to me whether AACS can be considered
a copy protection system. Additionaly, MPlayer/MEncoder are player/encoder
applications, whos foremost goal are to allow people to watch
the media they aquired and not a copy protection circumvention tool.
Hence we get quite some legal slack here.

> 2) Even if the decryption algos themselves are not a problem, they
> rely on a bunch of crypto keys (look at the doom9 forum for more
> info). This means that either Processing Keys are taken from a
> 'legitimate' player and included, or a list of Volume Unique Keys are
> included. Would the distribution of these keys be covered under fair
> use?

Hmm.. It's been some time since i last read the copy right law, but
i'd dont think that numbers are covered by that law. It might be possible
that those keys could be covered by the copy right protection law, but 
that depends on whether AACS is considered a copyright protection tool.

> 3) Is there any way to apply the patch without the keys and then allow
> the user to provide keys from wherever if the want to watch Bluray
> discs?

IMHO those keys should be handled like codecs.conf, input.conf etc.
I.e. there should be a compiled in version of them, but it should be
possible to use an external file

> I juist don't think it's very fair that Linux users cannot view their
> legal discs (which they paid for) in their legal drives (which they
> paid for)! What are your thoughts?

Not fair? IMHO part of AACS (the key revocation) should be considered illegal
as it damages the property of innocent individuals who've not done anything
wrong, but are faced with the possibility that their player will stop working
just because someone at some company made a mistake.


				Attila Kinali
-- 
If you want to walk fast, walk alone.
If you want to walk far, walk together.
		-- African proverb