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New copy-proof DVDs on the way?
news.com.com ^ | February 14, 2005, 9:00 PM PST | John Borland

Posted on 02/15/2005 9:07:16 AM PST by RicocheT

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To: RicocheT

any data that can be decrypted can be transcribed.
period. paragraph. end of story.


41 posted on 02/15/2005 11:23:55 AM PST by King Prout (Remember John Adam!)
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To: general_re
It's not tamper-proof, but that's not the object. The object is to raise the barrier to keep all but the most dedicated from getting in there and messing around.

From which sprouts a new underground economy.

42 posted on 02/15/2005 11:24:43 AM PST by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: Mad Mammoth

How about this one?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000CCY7A/104-1694897-0291154


43 posted on 02/15/2005 11:29:44 AM PST by Howlin (Free the Eason Jordan Tape!!!)
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To: WildTurkey

Pretty much. They try to make it difficult enough to tamper with that hiring someone to do it for you becomes prohibitively expensive. At some point, though, it becomes cost-effective for some clever soul to try treating it as a black box, and simply reverse-engineer themselves an emulator. Then, if you succeed, you sell them on the black market and make a killing. So it goes ;)


44 posted on 02/15/2005 11:32:49 AM PST by general_re ("Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith, but in doubt." - Reinhold Niebuhr)
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To: RicocheT
You can't use non Region 1 DVDs or use the analog out jacks other than to a monitor.

And how can it tell what is connected to the analog out jacks?

45 posted on 02/15/2005 11:37:57 AM PST by Vroomfondel
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To: ken5050; bobwoodard

HD TiVo is already available, though not cheap. The $1000 list price includes two tuners (allows for recording up to two shows simultaneously), and can be used with any combination (up to two total inputs) of 2 DirecTV and 2 "over-the-air" coax inputs.


46 posted on 02/15/2005 11:38:03 AM PST by kevkrom (If people are free to do as they wish, they are almost certain not to do as Utopian planners wish)
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To: Always Right

HA! You'll never stop me!!!

One frame at a time!!

[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,[Pause] Copy,

47 posted on 02/15/2005 11:40:39 AM PST by OXENinFLA
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To: Always Right
From the article:

Macrovision's new product takes a different approach to antipiracy than it has taken for analog or audio CDs. Gervin said Macrovision engineers have spent several years looking at how various DVD-copying software packages work and have devised ways to tweak the encoding of a DVD to block most of them.

That means the audio and video content itself requires no new hardware and isn't scrambled anew, as is the case with most rights-management techniques. Someone using one of the ripping tools on a protected DVD might simply find their software crashing, or be presented with error messages instead of a copy.

So they're looking at something for current DVDs.

48 posted on 02/15/2005 11:41:21 AM PST by Vroomfondel
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To: RicocheT
Hollywierd has already succeeded as far as I'm concerned. The majority of movies are such unimaginative pieces of trash that I have no interest in watching them once, let alone copying them.

It's quite sad to go to a movie theater once or twice a year, sit through the previews and think: "That looks really stupid. Not going to see that one, or that one, etc."

49 posted on 02/15/2005 11:42:13 AM PST by whd23
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To: OXENinFLA

Cool! I always wondered how they do those DVD-to-flipbook conversions ;)


50 posted on 02/15/2005 11:44:32 AM PST by general_re ("Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith, but in doubt." - Reinhold Niebuhr)
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To: oceanview
They still have some copy restrictions in them, but at least its reasonable and the cable company or TIVO isn't re-flashing them when Jack Valente commands it.

TIVO doesn't do that right now.

51 posted on 02/15/2005 11:55:07 AM PST by ClintonBeGone (In politics, sometimes it's OK for even a Wolverine to root for a Buckeye win.)
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To: ClintonBeGone

wasn't there a WIRED magazine article that says they soon will? they have to comply with whatever the media companies dictate as part of the DMCA, or be sued out of existence.


52 posted on 02/15/2005 11:57:52 AM PST by oceanview
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To: ElTianti
What stops me from using a DVD burner to copy a DVD image to another DVD? How would encryption stop me?

When you attempt to do a straight copy of a DVD, you will fail to copy the decryption key tracks. Without those keys, you can't play the video (at least not normally).

IIRC, commercial DVD playback software includes a licensed secret key to unlock the hidden tracks on DVDs. This key is well-concealed within the software, and commercial DVD drives will only access the video decryption key tracks if this access key is provided. Your commercial DVD playback software provides the secret access key to the drive, retrieves the decryption keys, and decrypts the video for playback.

Your file browser can access all the data on the DVD except the secret tracks. Ergo, you can certainly copy everything on the disk ... except the video decryption keys. If you burn a copy, the copy will not include these keys, and the playback software will be unable to decrypt the video.

A funny thing happened ...

A teenager in Finland was trying to crack this encryption scheme (as many people were). He got a copy of the Xing DVD playback software, nosed around in it, and discovered - someone forgot to hide it properly - the secret-track access key. With that key, he got a real decryption key off a DVD. With the decryption key, he performed a "known-key cryptographic attack", and deduced a way to decrypt DVDs without the decryption key. As proof of concept, he wrote and published the program DeCSS.exe. With that, one could copy the data off a DVD, decrypt the video (without paying the rather expensive key-licensing fee), and play the video.

Ergo, just straight copying a DVD with Nero (or whatever) won't work - your burning software does not have access to the secret decryption tracks. However, a teenager in Finland fixed that.

53 posted on 02/15/2005 12:00:07 PM PST by ctdonath2
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To: Vroomfondel
And how can it tell what is connected to the analog out jacks?

It doesn't. What it does is add something to the video signal that freaks out most analog recorders.

54 posted on 02/15/2005 12:02:58 PM PST by ctdonath2
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To: ctdonath2

Well that makes it perfectly clear. Thank you for your detail explaination.


55 posted on 02/15/2005 12:03:49 PM PST by ElTianti
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To: ClintonBeGone

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,65853,00.html


56 posted on 02/15/2005 12:04:26 PM PST by oceanview
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To: ctdonath2

and wasn't the one company who used that method to release PC software that let you make backup copies of your DVDs - sued out of existence by the media companies?


57 posted on 02/15/2005 12:05:43 PM PST by oceanview
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To: RicocheT

Like it really matters. Wait two months after a DVD is released, and get it for 5 bucks, pre-viewed at the Video store....lol


58 posted on 02/15/2005 12:07:34 PM PST by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you don't have to" ;)
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To: ctdonath2

It's still pretty painful, quasi-legal, and encryption really screws up the ability to make a home video server.


59 posted on 02/15/2005 12:07:35 PM PST by js1138
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To: balrog666

I guess my question is, what commercial purpose does the region code serve?


60 posted on 02/15/2005 12:09:55 PM PST by js1138
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