[opendtv] Re: DRM and AACS does nothing but annoy...
- From: "James Cole" <colejd@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:38:49 -0400
Well Cliff,
I must say that content providers must be aloud or at least given the
opportunity to protect their content from unauthorized coping and
distribution.
With that said, I must agree with you. If history has anything to say or at
least show us our mistakes, it's that copy protection has never outright
won. In fact, if anything, it has led to an increase cost to manufactures,
end users, and yes, the content producers.
Case in point starts with the early computer software industry. When I was a
kid I was computer games from the store was unaffordable ($30-50). So I
bought bootlegged copies for less then half the price. Estimates back then
stated that the copy protection schemes added about 20-30% cost. Today I
don't know of any software that uses copy protection. Not even the dreaded
dongle anymore (which has been broken).
VCR copy protection via Macrovision was beat by VBI blankers and Time Base
Correctors. Not exactly affordable to the home user back then, but to a
pirate, it was nothing. If the TV had a weak tuner, then the tape wasn't
very watch able to the law-biding end user.
The same can be said about DVD's and soon to be 1394 and HDMI protections.
Imagine the time and money that has been spend to come up with new ways to
protect content. I'll bet "they" the industry has spent more money then they
would have lost due to the average joe-six-pack consumer copying or trading.
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Cliff Benham
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 4:51 PM
To:
Subject: [opendtv] DRM and AACS does nothing but annoy...
[quote]
Perhaps someone can correct me on my understanding if I've
got this wrong. I certainly don't condone pirating or not compensating
anyone for their work, I'm just against mechanisms like this that do
nothing to address the original concern, but affect fair use of the
content. No matter what DRM anyone tries to implement, it can be
cracked, so this cat and mouse games just serves to annoy us!
I'm thinking there may be some funny business
involved with reducing the resolution (and they may not tell you)
because the analog component signals do not have any digital
rights management capability.
This is my biggest beef with Blu-Ray and the reason I don't now,
and may never own one, AACS. They call it "plugging the analog
hole" or "analog sunset". Right now all players have a bit that can
be set on the disk to limit the analog output to SD resolution
only. It is up to the content provider to decide to use it or not.
After 2010 all analog outputs must be limited to SD resolution
only. After 2012, no players will be allowed to be manufactured
with an analog output, and it is expected all discs will implement
the ICT bit disabling all analog outputs on existing players.
This is meant to thwart pirating but as usual, all the current AACS
keys are available from hackers, and pirates have no problem
ripping these disks. It only serves to hurt the legitimate end user
as all of these DRM scheme do.
I guess Hollywood has decided for me that I need to throw away my
$10K Sony HD projector so that I don't rip them off. Whenever
Hollywood gets control over a technical standard, it usually turns
out to be the worst choice for the consumer, and does nothing to
address their original concern. Remember DivX players?
More on AACS can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Access_Content_System
and:
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/06/drm-licensing-group-presses-o
n-with-plan-to-plug-analog-hole.ars
[end quote]
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