Software, services, and tools to despite U.S. copyright laws that state companies that sell DVD-copying tools and the U.S. users of the software are breaking the law, according to copyright attorneys. The federal bans providing information or tools to evade copy-control technology, including the Content Scramble System that's used in DVD media.

I asked a few representatives at the MPAA for a comment on the newest version of VLC a few days ago. I'm still waiting for a reply.

Copying DVDs may be old news, but given the popularity of VLC the MPAA may be tempted to weigh-in on VLC's newest feature someday soon. VLC still has a long way to go before it becomes a household name. According to market research firm Nielsen Online VLC is installed on a minority of U.S. computers compared to Windows Media Player, iTunes, and RealPlayer. But among techies VLC has a diehard following. According to Download.com the VLC Media Player 1.0 is a more popular download than RealPlayer 11, Nero 9, Divx, WinAmp, and Windows Media Player.

The MPAA might have a hard time squashing VLC, if it thinks the software is violating its CSS copyrights. VideoLAN, according to its Web site, is made up of developers around the world, including a team of students at the French engineering school École Centrale Paris. The software itself is open source and its makers allow anyone to distribute it freely.

I asked Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer and DMCA expert who teaches Information Privacy and Intellectual Property at American University, what she thought of the VLC player. "As the Second Circuit has held in Universal v. Corley, CSS is an 'effective access control' and tools to bypass it without authorization violate the DMCA's anticircumvention rule -- regardless whether the resulting uses are non-infringing. The DMCA applies to the 'access.'" Translation: VLC playing a DVD without a CSS license, never mind copying it, violates the DMCA. Kempf confirmed that VideoLAN does not have a license from the copyright holders of CSS.