This comes from http://pigdog.org/decss/, from someone called "Mr. Bad". His story:
Hey, so, I've been really mad about the recent spate of horrible witch hunts by the MPAA against people who use, distribute, or even LINK TO sites that distribute DeCSS, a piece of software used for playing DVDs on Linux. The MPAA has got a bee in their bonnet about this DeCSS. They think it's good for COPYING DVDs, which, in fact, it's totally useless for. But they're suing everybody ANYWAYS, the bastardos! Go look at OpenDVD.org to find out lots more about this really despicable travesty.
So, I decided that if I couldn't distribute DeCSS, I would distribute DeCSS. Like, I could distribute another piece of software called DeCSS, that is perfectly legal in every way, and would be difficult for even the DVD-CCA's lawyers to find fault with.
So that's what I'm doing. I wrote a small utility called "DeCSS" that strips Cascading Style Sheet tags from an HTML document. Yes, agreed, that's pretty much USELESS, but what the fuck. Maybe somebody wants to do that. AND it makes the name of the software much more plausible.
I encourage you to distribute DeCSS on your Web site, if you have one. I think of this as kind of an "I am Spartacus" type thing. If lots of people distribute DeCSS on their Web sites, on Usenet newsgroups, by email, or whatever, it'll provide a convenient layer of fog over the OTHER DeCSS. I figure if we waste just FIVE MINUTES of some DVD-CCA Web flunkey's time looking for DeCSS, we've done some small service for The Cause.
Seems like a good idea, so I'm helping him out. Besides, Spartacus is one of my favorite movies. Mmmm, gladiators...
