p2p news / p2pnet: The Big Four record label and Big Six movie studio cartels are hoping their already eye-popping profits will be further enhanced by the new Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

DRM is short for Digital Restrictions Management or C.R.A.P., as ZDNet’s David Berlind prefers to call it.

The term is, “often confused with copy protection and technical protection measures (TPM),” says Wikipedia. “These two terms refer to technologies that control or restrict the use and access of digital media content on electronic devices with such technologies installed.”

On Blu-ray and HD DVD, “For fear of piracy, Hollywood had the developers install a cornucopia of copy prevention mechanisms on them,” says Heise Security, going on:

“For instance, the film data on the disks are protected by means of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). Digital output only reaches the monitor via connections encrypted by means of High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). This copy protection chain is designed to ensure that no unencrypted data can be grabbed.”

But, surprise, surprise, “this security chain has a giant hole,” says the story. “Computer magazine c’t has discovered that the first software players running on Windows XP allow screenshots of the movies to be created in full resolution. To do so, you only need to press the Print key on your keyboard while the movie is running.”

Does this remind you of anything?

When BMG tried to claim its music CDs were protected by SunnComm’s MediaMax DRM software of Sony BMG spyware infamy, about 10 seconds later, they appeared on the p2p networks.

SunnComm had bragged, “CD copy protection robustness tests were performed to determine the security level of the product against unauthorized copying of the digital content. This was completed using a large set of Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computer systems in tandem with many of the known ripper programs available on the market today. The PMTC determined that none of the ripper programs used in the testing process was able to produce a usable unauthorized copy of the protected CD yielding a verifiable and commendable level of security for the SunnComm product. ‘Completing this external testing phase for our product was a crucial step toward large- scale deployment of protected MediaMax CDs,’ said Eric Vandewater, SunnComm’s Chief Technology Officer. ‘The technology we’ve developed to provide content security was accomplished without sacrificing user playability or functionality,’ Vandewater concluded’.”

BMG’s Velvet Revolver Contraband release came with anti-copying software from SunnComm, said Princeton’s Alex Halderman who discovered, “It can be bypassed by holding the shift key every time the disc is inserted, turning off autorun before using the CD for the first time, or manually disabling the driver software as described below.”

Back to the Heise Online story, the Blue-Ray and HD DVD screenshot function, “could then be automated to produce copies of HD movies both from Blu-ray Discs and from HD DVDs picture by picture” and, “As c’t calculated, the performance of current PC systems is sufficient for a clean recording using this procedure.

“Once a pirate has all of the individual pictures, they can be put together to create a complete movie and mixed with the audio track that is grabbed separately.”

This latest DRM bust affects Sony’s first Blu-ray PC Vaio VGC-RC 204 and Toshiba’s first HD DVD notebook Qosmio G30, says the story. Both use special OEM versions of Intervideo’s WinDVD player software.

“When asked to comment, Toshiba confirmed the security hole found by c’t, which affects the computers already sold, and announced updates for the player software and graphics card driver,” says . The fix, “should disable the screenshot function”.

“According to Toshiba, however, the original WinDVD version does not violate the security stipulations in the AACS LA,” says Heise Online.

“Toshiba therefore does not expect the first WinDVD version to be blocked by an update of the AACS key. By switching the keys, which would be necessary for new HD DVD movies, the AACS LA could force users to update their software, thus closing the copy protection hole.

“The next edition of c’t, which goes on sale on Monday, July 10, describes this security hole and its effects in greater detail.”

When will they learn that DRM is a crock?

Anything which can be seen or heard can be copied by one digital or analog means or another AND, ‘consumers’ are a whole lot smarter than the people who run the cartels.

End of story.

(Thanks, John Paul)

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Also See:
C.R.A.P. - Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
Heise Security - Copy protection hole in Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, July 7, 2006
SunnComm - SunnComm’s MediaMax CD-3 Technology Passes International Test with “Flying Colors”, August 27, 2003
Alex Halderman - Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System, October 6, 2003

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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