[opendtv] Re: DRM and AACS does nothing but annoy...
- From: Kon Wilms <konfoo@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:59:39 -0700
On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 2:38 PM, James Cole <colejd@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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.
As the director of one of my prior employers (who used to make those
cards in the back of DirecTV boxes) once told me - 'We are in the
business to make money. Making money means always having at least 10%
piracy in order to sell the next generation of protection to our
customers. If we solved the problem we would all be out of a job'.
> 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).
Ah the good old dongle, I remember it well :-). When I was a kid I
couldn't afford the games either (in South Africa software would come
in through a handful of channels, and it was always marked up by at
least 3x). So I ended up writing them (Space Invaders for Sinclair
ZX80) and cracking them (various ancient IBM PC CGA/EGA games). This
is how I got into software development, so I guess it's not all bad. I
remember my folks 'dropping me off' at Wang or Olivetti HQs for the
afternoon after school so I could go 'copy' software for them
(translation - a syadmin sat me in front of a console and let me
copy/crack games in exchange for giving him copies to take home). Of
course they thought I was there to 'learn' ;-). But I digress.
At home I have component running throughout the house. Where I can't
run component, I have component-over-ethernet runs to push the video
over CAT5. It took a while to wire my house this way, and with a fair
amount of cost. At the time of putting it in I also 'planned ahead'
since at that time component was considered 'HD READY'. But now these
bastards changed the game plan on all of us -- the legitimate
customers. I'll be buggered if I'm going to throw out my equipment so
I can watch > SD resolution because someone can't nail down the
cartels pirating and distributing content. So I continue to watch DVDs
and use my DirecTV DVR. No reason to get a Blu-Ray player.
Software protection is a racket. AACS is a joke at best, and a lesson
in obfuscation at worst, and in reality the modern day version of the
turbo loader. Hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted to what purpose?
None. Unless you count losing customers as an achievement, that is.
Cheers
Kon
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