To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Technology Feb. 22, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/02/22/decss DeCSS decoy A free-software fanatic unleashes a "useless" program to foil investigators looking for the DeCSS DVD decryption code. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Damien Cave Smokescreens never fail in James Bond movies. But can a decoy "DeCSS" software program, which strips cascading style sheets (CSS) from HTML documents, foil prosecutors searching for the real DeCSS, an outlawed program that decrypts DVDs? San Francisco Web developer and self-described "free-software fanatic" Evan Prodromou thinks so. That's why he wrote the "pretty much useless" application, posted it on the 'zine Pigdog Journal, where he's a staff writer, and encouraged open-source fans to post it to their sites. "The attempt here with the decoy is to put up thousands and thousands of mirror sites, to the point where the investigators throw up their hands in disgust," says Prodromou, who posted the software under his nom de plume, Mr. Bad. The real DeCSS code unlocks the copyright protection mechanism on a DVD -- and is the only way to play a DVD on a computer running Linux-based operating systems. (There is no commercial software for playing DVDs on Linux.) DeCSS came under attack by the film industry and makers of DVD players; they both filed suits against sites that distributed the code, with arguments that it is a tool for piracy. In a January ruling, a New York judge ordered three sites, including the hacker quarterly 2600, to stop distributing the software, writing that "there is little room for doubting that broad dissemination of DeCSS would seriously injure or destroy [the studios'] ability to distribute their copyrighted products on DVDs." To avoid being named as defendants in the suits, many sites that were distributing the code joined those named in the suit and took it down. With the decoy DeCSS, Prodromou figures he has hit on an effective way to protest, without sticking his neck out too far. The idea of distributing DeCSS appealed to him; a lot of hackers have asserted that if thousands of people were distributing the code, the studios and DVD makers wouldn't go after all of them. But Prodromou wasn't sure he wanted to break the law. "I'm a total chicken, and don't want to go to court," he wrote on the Pigdog site. "It's a practically risk-free way to stand up and say, 'I am Spartacus,'" says Prodromou, recalling the leader of an ancient slave revolt against Rome. "I'm not going to put up with investigators scouring around people's Web sites. It's a way to fight back without getting in trouble." Some members of the open-source community apparently agree. On Friday morning the Pigdog site was linked to from Slashdot, a favorite hangout of open-source developers, and Prodromou says, "Servers are going wild with the load." Still, not everyone thinks the prank is such a great idea. In fact, the cascading style sheet stripper called DeCSS will probably divert attention from more serious arguments about the original DeCSS -- such as whether or not software code can be protected by the same laws that guarantee free speech, says Scott Ananian, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science. "It seems like there are two strategies: One is to fight the issue in court, the other is 'We'll all break the law, then you can't catch us,'" says Ananian, who is also protesting the suits. "But the latter seems to be the wrong approach, because they can pick and choose who they grab. The only way to win is to win in court." The Motion Picture Association of America, which has been a vocal organ for the studios, and the DVD Copy Control Association declined to comment about the decoy DeCSS. In any case, hackers face an uphill battle. The federal judge who ordered that the original DeCSS be pulled off the Net, also disparaged the hacker community for making a concerted effort to disseminate the DeCSS code. If the judge's opinion isn't swayed and the movie studios win, then downloading the decoy DeCSS might be a valid form of protest, says Ananian. In fact, why not go further: "Name all your files DeCSS," he says. Of course, some hackers aren't waiting. Before Slashdot linked to Pigdog on Friday, more than 2,000 people had downloaded the decoy DeCSS and about 30 sites had told Prodromou that they had linked to the program. "We're not saying we don't respect the law," says Chris DiBona, president of the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group and the Linux community evangelist at VA Linux. His site contains a link to the decoy DeCSS, and even a sarcastic, Bond-like tease: "Looking for the hottest code on the Net? Here it is." "This is really about confusing the lawyers," DiBona says. "These guys are basically surfing the Web looking for people to sue, and this will confuse them because they're really not that smart. It's a good way to waste their time." Mr. Bad agrees: "I figure if we waste just five minutes of some DVD-CCA Web flunky's time looking for DeCSS, we've done some small service for The Cause." salon.com | Feb. 22, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Damien Cave is a Salon contributing writer.