From the president: to DVD or not to DVD
Communications of the ACM
Content analysis of the world wide web: opportunities and challenges
Social Science Computer Review
Rebel code: Linux and the open source revolution
Rebel code: Linux and the open source revolution
Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development
Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development
Reverse engineering under siege
Communications of the ACM
Terrorism or civil disobedience: toward a hacktivist ethic
ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society
Legal and technological efforts to lock up content threaten innovation
Communications of the ACM - Digital rights management
Communications of the ACM - Digital rights management
A skeptical view of DRM and fair use
Communications of the ACM - Digital rights management
Who participates and why?: an analysis of citizens on the internet and the mass public
Social Science Computer Review - E-government
Collective action in the age of the internet: mass communication and online mobilization
Social Science Computer Review - Special issue: Psychology and the internet
Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice
Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Linux Journal
When users push back: oppositional new media and community
Communities and technologies
Mapping information policy frames: the politics of the digital millennium copyright act
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Readings in Cyberethics
Digital Copyright
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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.