Threat of ‘Piracy’ Software Overblown

* I downloaded DeCSS and read the directions [“Another Blow Against Internet DVD Piracy,” Jan. 21]. Do you know what they told me? They told me how to play a DVD movie. They did not tell me how to distribute copies of a movie over the Internet, nor did they tell me how to copy the DVD directly if I had a DVD-R drive.

Granted, someone skilled in computers could figure these things out and use DeCSS to aid him/her in these endeavors, but just the fact that the instructions included with the software explained how to play and not how to pirate movies should cast some doubt on the assertion that these cases are about piracy, and get the programmer’s claim couched in something a little stronger than “purportedly.”

I also found out that the DeCSS software is very unpolished and cumbersome to use.

And I found that numerous other software packages exist that allow for pirating of DVD movies, and in fact existed before DeCSS was created, and are much easier to use. Any serious pirate would toss DeCSS out the window as being an inferior tool.

This case is not about piracy at all. This case is about freedom.

CARL N. MILLER

Costa Mesa