New HD DRM cracked

Submitted by andre on Thu, 2006-12-28 17:04.Computer Studies / Cultural Studies | Geeky | Pop Culture

In this article we hear that a new DRM scheme has been cracked.

"Otto" who makes a comment on the article says it best.

There is no amount of protection they can ever add that will make this sort of thing impossible to do. They simply cannot prevent copying, and it's easy to explain why.

All DRM measures, work on the notion that "copying" and "viewing" are different things. They want to allow people to view the content, but not to copy it. This is clearly ludicrous. It's as if somebody gave you a book and said that you were not allowed to take a pencil and write your own copy of the book elsewhere. They can say it, but it's wholly unenforceable.

In order to display any content, your computer must read it. If it can read it, then it can write a copy somewhere. Period. This undeniable fact of reality makes all DRM pointless.

In this particular case, the author did not even do anything particularly special. He implemented the documented algorithm. That's it. He got the key for a movie from his computer's memory (where the legit player had it) and then used it to copy the movie. Simple. Effective.