HDCP Key leak

wastedtime

Just figured I would share this as I haven't heard anything about it till a few hours ago. Another fail for DRM?

Intel confirms that hdcp has been cracked - The Inquirer

earweed

That's what it looks like. Apparently there are people who can crack any attempt at DRM no matter how complex.
What exactly are the consequences of this code being cracked though? Does it mean that video pirates will be able to copy and distribute the content?

erpadmin

wastedtime wrote: »

Just figured I would share this as I haven't heard anything about it till a few hours ago. Another fail for DRM?

Intel confirms that hdcp has been cracked - The Inquirer

Personally, this is excellent news for consumers; one less useless barrier for technology. If Man made it, Man can break it. Nothing is infallible and as long as script kiddies exist, DRM will always be useless.

I suspect that since HDCP will probably no be required in anything that will require HDMI input/output, manufacturers will (hopefully) bring down prices in future devices.

erpadmin

earweed wrote: »

Does it mean that video pirates will be able to copy and distribute the content?

That was happening anyway. There are a bunch of BR-RIPPED movies available...at worst, stuff that gets distributed would just have a lower bit of quality, but was better than paying $40 for your BR movie or paying that extra .50 at your local Redbox.

SephStorm

What is interesting is that Intel has reportedly threatened to sew anyone who uses the crack. I think this is the stupidest thing they could say. They might be able to say, sew someone selling a cracked (and advertised as such) device, but I don't think they can figure out if a home user is using a cracked device. If they can, I can't wait to see the lawsuits for undisclosed monitoring...

erpadmin

SephStorm wrote: »

What is interesting is that Intel has reportedly threatened to sew anyone who uses the crack. I think this is the stupidest thing they could say. They might be able to say, sew someone selling a cracked (and advertised as such) device, but I don't think they can figure out if a home user is using a cracked device. If they can, I can't wait to see the lawsuits for undisclosed monitoring...

They are talking out of the wrong hole.....

They're not suing anyone. I would love Intel to sue me for using a crack and then tell me through discovery how they came to know I was doing it. I don't even think they have any legal grounds anyway.

msteinhilber

erpadmin wrote: »

That was happening anyway. There are a bunch of BR-RIPPED movies available...at worst, stuff that gets distributed would just have a lower bit of quality, but was better than paying $40 for your BR movie or paying that extra .50 at your local Redbox.

That's really a manner of opinion though, and one coming from a tech savvy individual - your non techie individual is less likely to resort to piracy. I have a co-worker who frequently brings in his external drive to tout his latest movie piracy and offers to share. Most of the time he has 900mb to 1.4gb rips that I really wouldn't personally care to view. Sometimes he brings in Blu-ray rips, yea the quality is usually pretty good but I'm not going to sit around and wait for a 15-25gb+ rip of a movie to download via torrent and risk getting threatened with a lawsuit the next time a director decides to go and sue anybody they can find who pirated the movie (aka Hurt Locker I believe).

Not my idea of good time nor worth the risk in my opinion. And on top of that: anybody who blows $40 on a single Blu-ray title is an idiot and crying about $.50 more to rent a Blu-ray format from Redbox just makes me laugh. I get by fine with my Netflix subscription, and if a movie is released which I really enjoy I'll buy it on Blu-ray.

tpatt100

I am all for companies making money. Just not a big fan of DRM or pirating either.

tiersten

erpadmin wrote: »

They are talking out of the wrong hole.....

They're not suing anyone. I would love Intel to sue me for using a crack and then tell me through discovery how they came to know I was doing it. I don't even think they have any legal grounds anyway.

DMCA and the various clauses about circumvention devices. Have fun with that.

tiersten

The master HDCP key is fairly useless to be honest. People have already designed and made HDCP removers by using legitimate HDCP chips. Making your own chip that uses the master key to make it impossible to revoke isn't a trivial matter and requires advanced digital IC design and fabrication which is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and complicated.

This isn't like the CSS algorithm + key or the one used for AACS which lets you decrypt your movies. This is a low level system that you're not going to be able to use software to interact with.

The end result for 99.99% of people out there is same as it was before.