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LAS VEGAS -- Linux users soon will be able to play DVDs on their computers without having to break federal law.

InterVideo's LinDVD software, on display at the Comdex trade show here, offers a legal alternative to using the De-Content Scrambling System (DeCSS) program that was the subject of a court battle earlier this year. (See "Hollywood Vs. Hackers in Court.") Indeed, had LinDVD been available a year ago, there might never have been a DeCSS case.

The story goes that DeCSS, the software that allowed the supposedly secure DVD to be hacked and its files copied to computer hard drives, was created by Linux enthusiasts because there was no way to play their DVD movies on Linux computers, as their colleagues were able to do in Windows. But starting early next year, Linux users will have a fully licensed, legal DVD player for Linux, according to InterVideo. Whether this will dampen the fires of the legal squabble between the Motion Picture Association of America and hackers remains to be seen (see "Descrambling Code Still Under Fire"), though it may reduce demand for certain items of clothing. (See "T-Shirt Riles DVD Copyright Cops.")

After working with graphics card and Linux vendors for the last eight to nine months, InterVideo's LinDVD, the platform's first legal software DVD player, will soon be available, says Joe Monastiero, the senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at InterVideo. However, the product will not initially be available in a retail version, he adds.

According to Monastiero, InterVideo is initially focusing on selling the software to manufacturers of embedded Linux devices, such as home entertainment equipment, rather than to consumers because the "consumer electronics and convergence space is much more interesting" in terms of market size. However, later in the first quarter of 2001, consumers can expect to see a retail version of the software available on InterVideo's Web site for $29.95. Monastiero also says that the company has held discussions with major Linux vendors such as Caldera Systems, Corel, Red Hat, and SuSe about bundling the software.

Though stressing that the program is not open source (which much Linux software is), Monastiero says that later in 2001 InterVideo expects to publish the program's application programming interfaces so as to allow for customization by those with the necessary technical skill.

While LinDVD will finally provide the legal software player that many Linux users have long sought, Monastiero is not convinced that a licensed DVD player would have prevented DeCSS. Though InterVideo is "trying to be the good guys" when it comes to copyright protection, he says that DeCSS was probably an inevitable development because of the "Unabomber types" who exist at the fringe of the computer world. The Unabomber was an antitechnology terrorist who conducted a campaign of bombings. Though DeCSS was "initially problematic" for InterVideo, it "never had a major impact" and is now a nonissue, Monastiero says.

Intervideo, no doubt, is hoping that LinDVD will make DeCSS a commercial nonissue as well.

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