As far as I know, Divx the file format and Divx the discontinued disc
system have nothing to do with one another, it's just an unfortunate
bit of name confusion.  The Divx that can now be played on NetBSD is a
new video codec (actually, it sounds like the new package allows us to
use Microsoft's version of the new codec), it's part of the MPEG-4
standard, and it creates small, high quality video files. As soon as
it was available, people began using it to compress movies and TV
shows and trade them via the net.  People will do what they will. I'm
happy not because I can now find all the episodes of the original Star
Trek series online, but because I was thinking of distributing my next
video project as a divx file, and didn't want to have to also create a
billion other versions for platforms that lack the ability to play
such files. 

-Zach Fine
Freelance Film Editor
czyz@serv.net

>>>>> "J" == J Buck Caldwell <buckaroo@igps.org> writes:
    >> DivX is essentally a warez format for DVDs.  It uses MPEG-4 to
    >> compress a DVD movie down to approximately CD size.  There are
    >> many such movies available through gnutella, among other
    >> places.

    J> That's kindof a one-sided answer to the question. DivX is a DVD
    J> format that was created & marketed exclusively by Circuit City
    J> as a rental replacement. You would purchase the DivX disk for a
    J> small fee, which would allow you to play it for 3 to 5 days. If
    J> you wanted, you could then throw it away, or you could keep it,
    J> call a number, and pay more for the right to watch it in the
    J> future, or pay a large fee to permanently unlock it.