Hacker News Reader

VLC plays DVDs just fine for free, by decoding CSS on the fly. One might argue that that "The right to play DVDs must be paid for every computer" but I have never signed such agreement with anyone, ever. If I legally bought a DVD then I can legally watch it - maybe in US people would argue that decryption of a legally bought DVD is "hacking" but fortunately I don't live in that beautiful country.

View on HN

> I have never signed such agreement with anyone, ever

Until Windows 8, Microsoft did this for you behind the scenes. From Windows 8 onwards, Microsoft stopped doing it; you could either pay them to do it again, or OEMs would do it for you.

With 10, Microsoft just won't do it. I expect OEMs will still do it on new devices, but upgrades are anybody's guess.

It's probably/usually inclusive in your OS or computer purchase

Reply on news.ycombinator.com