Anuj C. Desai

Software as Protest: the Unexpected Resiliency of U.S. Based DeCSS Posting and Linking

This research tracked web sites posting or linking to software known as DeCSS over a 26-month period coinciding with a U.S. lawsuit that found posting and linking to the DeCSS software to be illegal. Results showed a decrease in the number of web pages posting the DeCSS software, and a decrease in the number of web pages linking to DeCSS. Seven web sites retained their DeCSS posting for the entire 26-month study period. An increasing number of sites posted nonexecutable forms of DeCSS, and results show a large percentage of web sites contained political speech. The persistence of DeCSS linking and posting was surprising given the prohibition on linking and posting within the United States and given the obsolescence of DeCSS as a DVD decrypter. We suggest that DeCSS linking and posting persists primarily as a political symbol of protest.

Who posts DeCSS and why?: a content analysis of web sites posting DVD circumvention software

This study explored why Web authors post the DVD decryption software known as DeCSS--specifically whether authors post DeCSS to protest changes in copyright law. Data are drawn from content analysis of Web sites posting the software. Most DeCSS posters did not include any content explaining why they posted DeCSS; however, no authors presented DeCSS as a piracy tool. Of sites containing explanatory content, many argued that DeCSS is a legitimate tool to play DVDs on free/open source computers. Other sites asserted that current copyright law is unjust, and that DVD-related corporations are engaging in undesirable behaviors. Based on the data, and theorizing from rhetoric and the collective action literatures, we assert that much DeCSS posting is protest, but it may not be copyright protest--numerous posters protest related issues such as freedom of speech. More research is needed to determine the significance of DeCSS posting to broader copyright policy debates including its relation to off-line protest, and the development of shared identities and cognitive frames. Also, the complexities of circumvention issues raise concerns about whether policy debate will be limited to elites. Finally, data point to the need to understand both international and local laws, norms, and events when studying copyright protest activity.

The Limits of Decss Posting: A Comparison of Internet Posting of Dvd Circumvention Devices in the European Union and China

This study explored differences in DeCSS posting between EU member nations, the PRC, Hong Kong, and Macau. DeCSS is a software program that circumvents DVD copy and access protection systems. The study investigated the number of websites in each nation that posted DeCSS. The study also examined the degree to which website authors included political speech on their websites referring to changes in copyright law brought about by World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty requirements. It also examined whether or not websites made reference to Free/Open Source software. Results found no DeCSS posting websites in the PRC, Macau, Luxembourg, Spain or Portugal; and results found few DeCSS posting websites in Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy and Greece. Results show more DeCSS posting websites in northern EU nations, especially the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and France. The paper draws on institutional theory and collective action theory to suggest explanations for the observed differences in DeCSS posting.

The Pre-Internet Downloading Controversy: The Evolution of Use Rights for Digital Intellectual and Cultural Works

This article describes and explains the shift in the database industrys treatment of downloading. Downloading began as an unwanted by-product of new technology and became a product feature. The authors explain this shift in terms of shifts in “use-regimes,” or changes to market practices, legal rules, user expectations, and technology-based tools that shape the use of intellectual and cultural property. In the early 1980s, citation database users did not have the right to “download,” or save, citations from bibliographic databases, but by the early 1990s, citation database publishers had partnered with bibliographic citation software developers (e.g., ProCite) to make easy downloading of citations a product feature. In this article, the authors tell both the lost story of the pre-Internet downloading controversy and how and why the meaning of downloading changed over a twenty-year period. In doing so, they present a theoretical framework that is useful for analyzing changes in use rights for a variety of types of intellectual and cultural goods. Finally, the authors compare lessons from this historical case study to contemporary use right debates in the intellectual and cultural property literature.

Global Copyright Protest? A Comparison of DeCSS Posting in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the European Union

This study explored the differences in DeCSS posting between EU member nations, the PRC, and Hong Kong. In particular, it sought to investigate the degree to which website authors in the EU, the PRC, and Hong Kong used DeCSS to protest changes in copyright law brought about by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Treaties. Data were drawn from a country-restrict based sample of websites from the Google index in Spring 2004 and content analysis was conducted on each website. Results found little evidence of protest posting in PRC, some evidence in Hong Kong, and substantial evidence in the EU. Taken as a whole, the results do not provide strong evidence of global posting of DeCSS on websites in order to protest changes to copyright law. Rather, results suggest the value and meaning of DeCSS varies across different nations.