2000 January 19

Edward Gallagher
Sargoy, Stein, Rosen & Shapiro
1790 Broadway, 19th floor                                               
New York, NY 10019-1412
egallagher@sargoy.com                                                   

Re: Infringement of Copyrighted Motion Pictures: 
 illegal distribution of deencryption material                
 http://osiris.978.org/~brian/css/ [sic]

Dear Mr. Gallagher: 

My web site at http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/css/ contains the Linux
Video and DVD Project (LiViD) DVD playback software and associated
components as well as a paper entitled "Cryptanalysis of Contents
Scrambling System" by Frank A. Stevenson.  I have permission from
Mr. Stevenson to publish his paper on my web site. The DVD playback
software is licensed to me by LiViD under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, which authorizes me to copy, modify, and distribute
said software. Your claims that the publication of these items
violates copyright law are false.

Your claims that links to 38 other sites with the deCSS utility exist
on my web site are false. Although I reserve the right to add links at
any time, no such links currently exist. Your claims that the LiViD
DVD playback software is primarily intended to circumvent
technological protection measures are also false. The LiViD DVD
playback software and the CSS authentication and decoding components
that comprise it are primarily intended for the playback of DVD
videos. The LiViD DVD playback software is not unlike other software
or hardware DVD players, which also have the secondary use of copying
DVD videos.  Furthermore, copying DVD videos is not always illegal,
contrary to what your letter of 2000 January 19 suggests.

Since you have lied under oath and the penalty of perjury by stating
that the information in your letter is accurate when it is not, I
request that you retract your false statements at once. Perjury is
serious offense.

Without true, verifiable, and specific information about what material
is infringing or unlawful, I must respectfully deny your request to
terminate my own account or to take any other action that might
interfere with my publication of the LiViD DVD playback software, its
CSS authentication and decoding components, or Mr. Stevenson's
paper. The information on my site violates neither copyright nor the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and there are no grounds for
removal.



Thank You,



Brian Ristuccia