DRM / HDCP Cracked - could this be good news for consumers?

[jpmarto]

Technolog - HD anti-piracy code crack leaked online

HD anti-piracy code crack leaked online

msnbc.com
The "IntelGlobalPR" Twitter page which links to the code that supposedly unlocks anti-piracy software for high-def movies is available.

By Suzanne Choney
The software code used to prevent piracy of movies shown on HDTVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes appears to have been cracked, with the code for unlocking that "master key" posted on the Internet, first via Twitter.
The news comes at a bad time for the movie industry, which is getting ready to offer films that are still in theaters to folks at home in front of their HD sets, with playback limited by the Digital Rights Management software that may have been hacked.
Intel created the piracy-prevention software, called HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). It is used on every device that plays high-def content to prevent copying of movies. A Twitter account, named "IntelGlobalPR" — which clearly is not Intel's — posted a link to a Web page supposedly containing the code to unlock the copy protection "master key."
"How many metaphorical bloody noses will it take before the movie and music industries realize that DRM is a waste of their time — and ours?" wrote Richi Jennings, who writes about security for Computerworld. "And, as for 'pirates', the futility of DRM is clearly shown by the timeliness and quality of the Blu-ray rips available in BitTorrent and USENET."
"We are, of course, aware of the rumors and stories about this, and we are investigating this as we speak," a spokesman for Intel told msnbc.com Wednesday.
Engadget, one of the first to report the possible breach, said, "Who discovered this and by what technique isn't immediately clear, but as early as 2001 security researcher Niels Ferguson proposed that it could be easily revealed by knowing the keys of less than 50 different devices. Hardware HDCP rippers like the HDfury2 and DVIMAGIC have been around for a while and various AACS cracks easily allow rips of Blu-ray discs ... but if this information is what it claims to be, then the DRM genie could be permanently out of the bag allowing perfect high definition copies of anything as long as the current connector standards are around.
"While it's unlikely your average user would flash their capture device with a brand new key and get to copying uncompressed HD audio and video, keeping those early releases off of the torrents in bit perfect quality could go from difficult to impossible."

 

[freezy]

i'm not a fan of hacking but i'm sick of the restrictions that blu-ray has, the exponential amount of data collecting, the bait and switch con-games third party codec/software publishers play

 

[jpmarto]

I'm not thinking about the hacking side of it, just the archiving of DVR recordings on your PC, and the ability to send HDMI all over the house without needing to be an engineer or use really complicated and not always fool-proof hardware.

 

[DishSubLA]

The purveyors of digital encryption have been taking the Hollywood studios and others promised a high level of security from cracks to the cleaners for years with the encryption companies knowing full well that what they have sold to the content owners will be cracked in very short time.

When will someone at the studios stand up say they are no longer going to be ripped-off, not by the general public who just want to share or just can't afford the Blu-rays, etc., from accessing unencrypted content, but from the snake-oil technology companies who sucker the content owners into thinking there is such as thing as a secure encryption for their content.

Lower the prices of DVD's and Blu-rays; that will immediately take the wind out of the pirate's sail. Or value pricing: a set of or number of Blu-rays, say 4 for $20. Price a loaf of bread at $1 and no one is interested, but price 2 loaves at $3 and the rabble buy in droves.

Most of the copying of content over the years was and is still not done by pirates, but by honest people who only want to share music, movies, TV shows, that have either touched them or brought them great joy with a select few friends or family loved ones because buying the same content is too expensive. That has not, nor will it even come close to causing Hollywood to go out of business any time soon. And the piracy numbers and supposed loss of money Hollywood likes to throw around was proven to be a bunch made-up numbers.

Save your money, content owners, and by not throwing it away on useless snake-oil content protection, you can afford to sell your content at reduced prices that will put whatever pirates there are out of business. But, then again, content owners, you would have to get over your own sickness of avarice.

 

[the mack]

nice post.........

 

[navychop]

Huh? By that logic, since I want a Rolls but can't afford one, I should be given one. Property is property. Stealing is stealing, even if given to someone who can't afford it because you were "touched" by it. That MAKES you a pirate. A thief.

 

[Bobby]

Huh? By that logic, since I want a Rolls but can't afford one, I should be given one. Property is property. Stealing is stealing, even if given to someone who can't afford it because you were "touched" by it. That MAKES you a pirate. A thief.

+1

 

[SaltiDawg]

Originally Posted by navychop View Post
Huh? By that logic, since I want a Rolls but can't afford one, I should be given one. Property is property. Stealing is stealing, even if given to someone who can't afford it because you were "touched" by it. That MAKES you a pirate. A thief.

+1

+1

 

[jpmarto]

Please help me out here. If DRM is rendered useless, and falls out of common use, how is it theft if I can now transfer my recordings to a PC-based device, or distribute my legally obtained HDMI output from my ViP622 and send it to multiple rooms?

 

[navychop]

Because you don't own it, you have a license to use it for certain specific purposes under certain conditions.

 

[whatchel1]

Because you don't own it, you have a license to use it for certain specific purposes under certain conditions.

Can't agree w/ that statement. If you are paying for service then you have a right to do with it as you want as long as it's not reselling it to someone else. That would be making a profit on someone else's property. Just keeping it for you own use isn't violating any copyrights. What you are saying is what is behind the crap that promotes DRM. I pay for HBO I have a right to transfer it to another medium for my own use. I feel strongly that this should be the rule of thumb.

 

[navychop]

That "right" is per legislation, and can change, even by court order. Companies had (maybe still really do have, TBD) the right to say you simply cannot make a copy. If you damage your copy, you have to buy another one, just like most products in this world. It would appear that current federal law overrides this. I'm not opposed to putting it on a server at your home for convenience, I'm just saying the "right" isn't what we would like to think, it's based on malleable laws.

But the context was making copies for others. Clearly theft, and you lose your "honest" label if you do it, IMO and in the view of the law.

We're talking broadly, not just Dish service- add DVDs, BDs, CDs etc.

 

[jpmarto]

I don't want be argumentative, I appreciate the replies. I'm just a bit surprised I need a "license" to buy a DRM-capable HDMI switch/amp to send my HDMI output to two or more different rooms. Only the best of the devices seem to work, and I keep reading the DHCP (edit: HDCP) handshakes were the problem.

Given federal law on archival recording, I don't see why my keeping my DVR recordings on my home network server should be any much different than storing in on one of multiple USB EHD devices formatted by my ViP receivers.

My original post did not infer or suggest theft, I believe that was assumed by a reader.

 

[whatchel1]

I don't want be argumentative, I appreciate the replies. I'm just a bit surprised I need a "license" to buy a DRM-capable HDMI switch/amp to send my HDMI output to two or more different rooms. Only the best of the devices seem to work, and I keep reading the DHCP (edit: HDCP) handshakes were the problem.

Given federal law on archival recording, I don't see why my keeping my DVR recordings on my home network server should be any much different than storing in on one of multiple USB EHD devices formatted by my ViP receivers.

My original post did not infer or suggest theft, I believe that was assumed by a reader.

Theft is what the BS laws that movie studios are trying to force us to buy a new copy of the same thing over & over. The handshake issue is only part of the DRM and most likely is still the same even w/ a "break in the DRM". I doubt that that is what has been "hacked".

 

[Anony55]

Stealing & unauthorized use should not be confused. Both may be illegal, but that doesn't make them the same.

Stealing is when someone takes something away from someone... meaning the person stole from no longer has it. If you come home and find your TV or jewelry gone, it's been stolen and you no longer have them.

If you own the rights to a music cd, and someone buys it and copies it to their computer's hard drive, that's unathorized use. But it's not stealing. You still own the rights to that music, and can still sell copies of it. I suppose you could try to make the case that doing so fills a need that the intellectual property rights owner may have filled by selling the music in an additional platform, but that would be quite a stretch.

I don't buy into this "stealing" & "thief" rhetoric. That's just extremist language that's intended to intimidate people & make them shut up. After all, no one wants to be called a thief.

Before anyone goes quoting this or that law (which may use the words stealing & theft)... I'm not talking about what's legal or not. This is all about the words used (law makers can mis-apply words too). The intellectual property rights people loose a little more credibility each time they over-reach with misapplied words.

Unauthorized access/use is against the law. There's no need to try to make it sound worse by misusing a harsher word.

Cheers

 

[Jim S.]

Huh? By that logic, since I want a Rolls but can't afford one, I should be given one. Property is property. Stealing is stealing, even if given to someone who can't afford it because you were "touched" by it. That MAKES you a pirate. A thief.

Explain how a notional object is the same as a physical object. While you're at it, explain how being forced to respect the sanctity of a notional object isn't an illegal imposition of religion.

 

[navychop]

I don't want be argumentative, I appreciate the replies. I'm just a bit surprised I need a "license" to buy a DRM-capable HDMI switch/amp to send my HDMI output to two or more different rooms. Only the best of the devices seem to work, and I keep reading the DHCP (edit: HDCP) handshakes were the problem.

Given federal law on archival recording, I don't see why my keeping my DVR recordings on my home network server should be any much different than storing in on one of multiple USB EHD devices formatted by my ViP receivers.

My original post did not infer or suggest theft, I believe that was assumed by a reader.

The license I referred to was on the program material, not the devices.

My post was not in response to you, it was to post #4, which included:

"...the general public who just want to share or just can't afford the Blu-rays, etc............Most of the copying of content over the years was and is still not done by pirates, but by honest people who only want to share music, movies, TV shows, that have either touched them or brought them great joy with a select few friends or family loved ones because buying the same content is too expensive...."

Dishonesty no matter how you cut it. You cannot justify it by using soothing words such as "sharing" or claiming hardship. This is entertainment. Charities support hardship cases with food, clothing and shelter. Would you have the gall to go to one to request assistance to buy (or copy) a Blu-ray or DVD?

And I will not quibble over someone's preference for the use of one term over another. This is not a court of law. The point was made, the act can, and has, result[ed] in prosecution.

I humbly suggest not many would consider me an extremist, or one prone to inflammatory language.

 

[navychop]

Explain how a notional object is the same as a physical object. While you're at it, explain how being forced to respect the sanctity of a notional object isn't an illegal imposition of religion.

Perhaps someone will rise to respond if you take it to sonicbabble.

 

[Anony55]

...I humbly suggest not many would consider me an extremist, or one prone to inflammatory language.

Unless you are an intellectual property rights lobbyist, or someone who is paying them... then no, I don't put you in that category. It's that crowd that has set the tone & terms for the language. I don't blame you for picking up on it. Shoot, "thief" has become commonly used on this subject. Don't think for a minute that it's an accident either... it's been done by design.

Mainly Hollywood & their lobbyist (and others like them) are the guys I'm talking about. They are the ones who decided how extreme the intellectual property rights laws should be, and how extreme the language should be surrounding the issue. Then they took their money & made those things happen.

Not just on the legal front, but on the public perception front as well. Remember the PSA with the "regular Joe" sitting in a jail cell? Then the big mean looking guys ask him what he's in for, and he tells them "stealing" cable TV.

Now we got housewives being fined $32,000 because their teenage kids up/down load music using the internet. Meanwhile, some real thief can break into her house and steal all of her families belongings. What happens to him if he gets caught... suspended sentence & $1,500 court costs. Then the authorities tell the housewife that they hope she had good insurance.

Unfortunately, there's no "struggling housewife" lobby to get laws passed to protect the property rights of normal folks. Are you beginning to see why this sticks in my craw?

Yeah, these guys have been playing this game since even before the digital age. But I don't blame you at all for picking up on the their language. Like I said, it's become common. I should've been more clear about that in my other post. I really didn't mean to offend you personally.

Cheers

 

[navychop]

We agree a great deal.