Category: drm
Digg Vs. HD-DVD DRM
I’ve read several stories over the past few days on the distribution of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Processing Key, first discovered by the poster arnezami at the Doom 9 forums. That thread is an excellent example of the hard work and dedication needed to bust existing Digital Resource Management (DRM) schemes. In short, the Processing Key can be used with the proper software to decrypt and in theory duplicate movies protected with AACS copy-protection scheme.
Predictably, the AACS Licensing Authority sent cease-and-desist letters to every site it could find which published the Processing Key. Digg.com initially complied with the request, deleting all Digg posts relating to the key. Digg’s founder Kevin Rose eventually decided that it was more important to listen to the posting community instead of Hollywood on this issue, and reversed his decision to comply with the cease-and-desist request.
Ultimately, Kevin had a tough decision to make. On the one hand, he could continue to delete references to the Processing Key and potentially alienate Digg users, or he could listen to Digg users and alienate Hollywood.
I think he made the right choice
Posted: 05.03.2007FairPlay Stripper
I’ve seen battles between those wanting to protect digital things and those wanting to use digital things since the days of the Apple II. I have fond memories about all the copy protection schemes used on the Apple floppys, tactics like half/quarter track copies, disk spanning, hardware keys, etc. The thing was that some clever joe (or series of joes) always came along and made those innovations look foolish.
The battle between DRM and anti-DRM forces is shaping up in a similar way. FairPlay, the DRM solution used by Apple in their iTunes software, has been a visiable application of DRM. This handy utility can best be described as a DRM stripper for iTunes. I’m not sure how it works, but the refereced forum thread describes the process in as much detail as desired. It’s Windows only, but I can’t imagine a Mac port is far behind.
I like the idea of a FairPlay stripper as I don’t share my music. DRM is a pain, go rebels!
Posted: 03.02.2007