smart ripper Vs decss : legal?

[cypher_soundz]

Ok here goes:

There is all these law suits against Decss , but isn’t smart ripper , dvddcypter vstrip etc the same ...i think i remember something saying that decss brute force’s the keys? and smart ripper etc uses the keys on the dvd player???? ( maybe im just talking 'excuse my French' MARED ) but isn't breaking the css illegal ( FULL STOP ) and distributing the program to do that is illegal to? so tell me how is it that doom9 links ( ?hosts? ) to programs like smart ripper .

i think there must be a realy simple reason?