As DVD popularity grew in the 1990s,
the Content Scramble System (CSS), a
digital rights management scheme, was
implemented within the DVD format
for protecting DVD media content from
piracy. The CSS system was designed to
prevent the copying of material via encryption.
DVD content, including extra features
and menus, may be encrypted with CSS at the
manufacturing plant when the disks are created.
DVD players then decrypt the encryptionprotected
content when the feature is viewed.
In 1999, a teenager named Jon Johansen
and two other hackers cracked the CSS code
and posted the decryption software, DeCSS,
on the Internet for anyone to download. This
made it possible for a large segment of the
global public to make illegal copies of DVD
movies, which could be viewed on either a PC
or standard DVD player.
When the courts legally blocked the
posting of the source code, the code was
subsequently posted as “art” or “artistic
expression” (for anyone with a compiler) to
get around legal injunctions against distributing
the program as illegal software (see the
figure). This series of events evoked the wrath
of the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA) and resulted in legal actions against
Johansen. The most serious damage to movie
and media content creators occurred in countries
where IP protections are weak, if
non-existent.