3 ms·

About a decade ago, David Touretsky (the professor behind this) hosted a "gallery" of versions for the DeCSS decryption software.

by jdp23 16y ago

bravura 16y ago
Prof. Touretzky reminds Sony's lawyers of this, in the linked article: "Note to Sony lawyers: no doubt you're eager to rack up another billable hour by sending legal threats to me and my university. Before you go down that unhappy road, check out what happened the last time a large corporation tried to stop the mirroring of technical information here: The Gallery of CSS Descramblers (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery). Have you learned anything in ten years?"
aothman 16y ago
Touretzky is also one of scientology's biggest online critics: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/ I believe CMU's lawyers are well-acquainted with responding to legal threats against him.
- blantonl 16y ago
  CMU's lawyers most certainly had to vet this before it went up publicly, so lets raise a toast to those attorneys, and most importantly Touretzky, for their efforts. This was not a spur of the moment thing - these guys did their homework. "Ding"
  - scott_s 16y ago
    CMU's lawyers most certainly had to vet this before it went up publicly I doubt that. Academics are used to operating with autonomy, and by nature don't confer with lawyers before speaking. So I'm curious why you're so certain he presented this to the lawyers first.
    - jhferris3 16y ago
      As someone who's taken a few classes with said professor, I highly doubt he consulted any lawyers before doing this.
  - state_machine 16y ago
    From my experience at CMU, I'd say that isn't likely: The administration is very cautious and conservative most of the time, and if they had been involved, this would have,at the very least, taken weeks to happen. That said, the CS department head may have given him a thumbs up (probably even literally), knowing that legal will be forced to back them up, if he asked anyone at all before hand.
  - JoeAltmaier 16y ago
    I sincerely doubt that. It would be essentially identical to SONY vetting a professor's online posts/research results.

About a decade ago, David Touretsky (the professor behind this) hosted a "gallery" of versions for the DeCSS decryption software.

by jdp23 16y ago

About a decade ago, David Touretsky (the professor behind this) hosted a "gallery" of versions for the DeCSS decryption software.

bravura 16y ago

Prof. Touretzky reminds Sony's lawyers of this, in the linked article: "Note to Sony lawyers: no doubt you're eager to rack up another billable hour by sending legal threats to me and my university. Before you go down that unhappy road, check out what happened the last time a large corporation tried to stop the mirroring of technical information here: The Gallery of CSS Descramblers (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery). Have you learned anything in ten years?"

aothman 16y ago

Touretzky is also one of scientology's biggest online critics: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/ I believe CMU's lawyers are well-acquainted with responding to legal threats against him.

blantonl 16y ago
CMU's lawyers most certainly had to vet this before it went up publicly, so lets raise a toast to those attorneys, and most importantly Touretzky, for their efforts. This was not a spur of the moment thing - these guys did their homework. "Ding"
- scott_s 16y ago
  CMU's lawyers most certainly had to vet this before it went up publicly I doubt that. Academics are used to operating with autonomy, and by nature don't confer with lawyers before speaking. So I'm curious why you're so certain he presented this to the lawyers first.
  - jhferris3 16y ago
    As someone who's taken a few classes with said professor, I highly doubt he consulted any lawyers before doing this.
- state_machine 16y ago
  From my experience at CMU, I'd say that isn't likely: The administration is very cautious and conservative most of the time, and if they had been involved, this would have,at the very least, taken weeks to happen. That said, the CS department head may have given him a thumbs up (probably even literally), knowing that legal will be forced to back them up, if he asked anyone at all before hand.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  I sincerely doubt that. It would be essentially identical to SONY vetting a professor's online posts/research results.