What's So Free About This DVD? 

Open-source advocate Eric Raymond said he doubts open-source developers will pirate the film in great numbers.

"Moore's action is a giveback to the community, and one that will be warmly appreciated," Raymond said.

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"I'm not sure that will reduce the incidence of copying, though, since we're already pretty straight-laced about other peoples' IP (intellectual property) rights. Moore's big risk of being pirated was never from us Internet hackers, but rather from the cracker and warez-d00d crowds."

Perens concurs.

"I suspect that some people will be paid by various media companies to deliberately pass the film around, just to rain on our parade," he said. "The media companies and their trade associations, the MPAA and the RIAA, are that Machiavellian.

"But the improper passing around of copies is a small bite in a much larger sales pie. So this would not hurt J.T.S. much, just as it's not hurting the media companies nearly as much as they say."

Raymond hopes the DVD's release will help educate people about CSS.

"The sharks running the media conglomerates may be impervious to reason, but the public isn't," he said. "If Moore's act helps dramatize the deep stupidity of DRM (digital rights management), it will do us all a great service.

"I'd like to think Moore's action will prove something to the entertainment moguls, too, but I doubt it. These people are not hawking copy restrictions out of economic rationality; if they were, they'd have noticed that free copying builds markets for content far more often than destroying them."

Moore said he'll watch to see whether Revolution OS on DVD is pirated by searching the Internet and checking the file-trading networks. He's run a Google search a couple of times a week since the film was released in February 2001 to see if it was being screened or circulated without permission.

When Moore does discover an unauthorized use of the film, he sends a polite e-mail asking people to either remove the downloadable files or temporarily delay the screenings until they can get permission.

"Thus far, everyone has been quite nice about it," Moore said. "And I don't try to discourage unauthorized screenings just for the sake of being a jerk. It is so difficult to get independent documentary films booked into movie theaters, but it's impossible if the theater owners know the film can be viewed elsewhere in town for free."

Moore said he strongly believes in the rights of artists, writers, filmmakers and coders to profit from and control their creations. He admits being very possessive of Revolution OS, and said he would be "quite unhappy" if someone re-edited the film, inserted new footage into it, or tried to pervert its story or meaning without his consent. All these actions are somewhat easier to perform without CSS, of course.

"But there has to be limits to the power of copyright and patent holder if creativity and innovation are to thrive," Moore said. "The concept of 'fair use' seems to have fallen out of legal and political favor, but it is vital."

Revolution OS is available for purchase on Moore's website.

Moore has also opted to release the DVD without regional coding restrictions, allowing the film to be viewed on any DVD player anywhere in the world.

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