O'REILLY - Linux maven Bruce Perens: DMCA outlaw?

In a San Francisco hotel conference room buzzing with lingo-slinging technology executives and public relations representatives, Bruce Perens is an unassuming standout. The advocate and developer of free software isn't wearing a gray suit like the rest of them, and he's not overly optimistic about the announcement being made here -- that media software maker RealNetworks Inc. is making some of its vital source code freely available to developers.

That's because Perens sees through the business of the software industry. He is more engaged in its social aspects. In addition to making many technical contributions to open source and free software projects such as the Linux operating system, Perens also is the primary author of "The Open Source Definition," a syllabus of sorts that outlines the philosophy of the development model, which says software code should be free to view and modify.

At the San Francisco event on Monday, Perens explained in an interview that he is planning to embark on another cause -- an assault on the controversial digital copyright legislation known as the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

Perens said he plans to break the DMCA during a presentation on digital rights management (DRM) Friday afternoon at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in San Diego. He is scheduled to demonstrate a souped-up DVD player that can circumvent certain DRM technologies created to control the availability of DVD movies by region.

The issue is one that hits close to home for Perens. On a recent trip to London, the Linux developer and Hewlett-Packard Co. employee said he purchased two movies on DVD: "Gladiator," the heroic story of a muscle-bound gladiator bringing honor back to the Roman empire, and "Artificial Intelligence: AI," Steven Spielberg's futuristic take on the progress of artificial intelligence. When he returned to the U.S. to watch his new titles, the movies wouldn't play in his DVD player, he said. That's because Hollywood has devised a system that classifies DVDs by geographical "zones" and prohibits movies from being played outside the zone they are manufactured for.

"When Hollywood releases a DVD in London, that DVD will not play in a U.S. DVD player," Perens explained.

That is, unless you know how to hack your DVD player, which is exactly what Perens plans to demonstrate during his presentation. Perens purchased on eBay a player that had been modified, using a software application available on the Internet, to play DVDs from various regional zones.

"I'm going to explain how the player was modified," he said.

Technically, under the DMCA, Perens' explanation of the technology makes him liable for a fine of US$500,000, he said. And although his presentation might seem like a frivolous crime, tempting the DMCA has been a risky endeavor by those who have tried similar protests before him.

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