Well it’s been a little over two days, and i’m quite relieved that OpenDisc launched without much trouble. There’s been an overwhelming amount of support in friendly emails, forum posts and bloggers already – thanks to everybody for taking to the time to write, it’s made this all the more worthwhile. 
I was chuffed when the first day recorded 263 completed downloads, considering the disc is around 580MB. The next day it really took off with 1197 grabs. Considering the traffic of those two days (some 846GB) an official torrent is now my top priority. SourceForge carries statistics about the project downloads if you’re interested.
It’s great to have proper forums again, and it really shows in how quick people have taken up using them. It cuts down my email pile tremendously too, so hopefully I won’t have to spend so much time replying to duplicate questions/suggestions now.
I’m not typically a name dropper, but Mark Shuttleworth posted a comment on my previous postI warning me about including VLC. I was expecting both sides of feedback on it’s inclusion, but I still stand by my reasoning; if there’s mirrors in the USAII hosting it for download (not to mention OpenDisc), that can’t be any different from somebody physically selling or giving away either project to someone on the street. However, Mark says that’s illegal and that people could be sent to jail for doing so. Somewhat surprisingly he’s the only person to react strongly about VLC thus far. I’m checking further into it in any case.
The translation project (aiming to reach the 80% non-English speaking Earth) has already got under way, with some of the existing translators being joined by new volunteers. Hopefully in the near future we’ll have a multi-lingual OpenDisc.
Looking through the inbound traffic, StumbleUpon hits overpass all others, with more than 6500 visits in twenty four hoursIII. The majority of other traffic is from non-English blogs talking about OpenDisc, and although it’s hard for my mono-lingual brain to understand what they’re saying about the project, it all seems to be positive. 
Thanks again to everybody that visited, commented, blogged, dugg, stumbledupon and downloaded OpenDisc.
- “Mutiny Aboard the good ship TheOpenCD“ [↩]
- Which is where libdvdcss is particularly troublesome. [↩]
- It didn’t seem to be stumbled upon until the second day. [↩]
Hi,
It’s not fair to characterize Mark Shuttleworth’s response as negative. He does caution you, as might anyone who thinks they see trouble, but being that the blog does request replies you can’t complain when you get unsolicited advice. I certainly am not in a position to have an informed opinion, but somebody with Shuttleworth’s resources may well be in a position to know what they are talking about. Naturally, you will make your own decisions, but not in a vacuum. Your decisions may well effect the lives of others and ignorance is a sad excuse for a poor outcome. I’m sure you’re trying to influence lives in a good way and wish you all the best with that.
Regards,
Karl O. Pinc
I’m going to quote Mark Shuttleworth’s comment verbatim so that my remarks will “get it right”.
Mark said “DeCSS is unfortunately illegal in the US, and anybody who distributes CD’s of it is liable to go to jail. Literally. That is a dumb situation, but it is the reality, so please don’t put your users in that situation inadvertently.”
The only berating I’m seeing there is that of U.S. law. I don’t see it as a personal attack on you. And you can’t argue that he isn’t correct. You are in fact putting yourself and anyone who distributes this disk at risk of landing in Jail.
I’m not berating you either. I’m just stating fact.
However…..
The chances of anybody actually landing in jail are pretty slim anybody. I’m sure that’s why you’ve gone ahead with it.
Nevertheless, the problem remains.
So on behalf of those who use VLC and find DeCSS useful… thanks.
On behalf of greedy lawyers working for greedy corporations (NBC Universal, News Corp, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, Disney….), anal-retentive members of United States law enforcement and/or anyone who might have a gripe with you down the road, thanks again.
I was a little harsh I agree (berated was a poor choice), I think it was more down to the fact that I wasn’t expecting somebody as esteemed as Mark to throw me a concise and substantial warning as he did. Which is essentially all it was; a non-threatening warning that people might get in trouble inadvertantly. For the first time I’ve actually changed a post to fix the wording of that, and the fact that VLC doesn’t include decss but it’s own libdvdcss.
In certain countries it’s just about the opposite; zcat (on the Mutiny post) pointed out that “DVDCSS region coding is an ‘illegal restraint of trade’” in New Zealand.
The VLC FAQ addresses the legality of the included libdvdcss:
The use and distribution of the libdvdcss library is controversial in a few countries such as the United States because of a law called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). If you are unsure about the legality of using and distributing this library in your country, please consult your lawyer.
See also the ubuntucat blog on the subject.
So re-distribute to the US with care.
Where are the torrents!
Andrew: Thanks for that info; I think I might work on a “how to remove VLC” for those uneasy about distributing in countries that frown on it. No point punishing the rest of the world.
And the torrents are coming, one of the trackers we used for OpenCD has been a little slow to answer emails, so we might just release one locally and see how it goes for now.