New MacroVision ‘copy-proof’ app
p2pnet.net News:- If you can see it or hear it, you can copy it.
Period.
Nonetheless, Macrovision claims its RipGuard DVD “digital rip-control solution” for DVD video is what the entertainment industry needs to plug the “digital hole” created by PC-based DeCSS ripper software“which allows millions of average consumers to make unauthorized perfect digital copies of copyrighted DVDs in mere minutes”.
It got that right, anyway.
But “authorized”? Authorised by whom? And to do what?
Anyone who’s paid more-than-a-fair-buck, as is usually the case, for a music and/or CD/DVD and/or software disc also has all the ‘authorization’ he or she needs to copy it for their own uses.
“These copies can be burned to inexpensive recordable DVDs or uploaded onto the peer-to-peer (P2P) networks,” Macrovision contiues in deliberately inflammatory language. “P2P downloads and the rent, rip, return of DVDs are an ongoing source of billions of dollars in annual revenue losses for the movie studios.”
That’s accurate. But neither Macrovision nor any other company trying to cash in on DRM will change that.
As long as physical product is available, Organized Crime will copy it by one means or another for distribution on world blackmarkets.
“Macrovision RipGuard DVD is designed to dramatically reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal P2P content,” states the company.
But that has nothing to do with duping, counterfeiting or other types of criminal enterprises, although the entertainment industry’s RIAA and MPAA and similar pseudo-cop organizations never fail to put the two distinctly separate and unassociated activities together.
It’s never been proven that a download equals a lost sale. Not even nearly. And p2p downloads are shared, not sold.
And speaking of rip-offs, the hundreds of millions of people who share music with each other online would buy music industry ‘product’ if it was sold at fair and reasonable process instead of the extortionate dollar-a-download that’s currently being charged.
“The combination of Macrovision’s analog copy protection technology (ACP) and RipGuard DVD provides comprehensive DVD protection for both major piracy threats faced by video content copyright owners – the analog and digital holes. RipGuard DVD is a technological solution that effectively protects a copyright owner’s rights.” promises Macrovision.
“The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to attempt circumvention of such technological measures.”
Oh. The DMCA. That’s OK, then. The DMCA will stop the hard-core crooks dead in their tracks.
Don’t bother to stay tuned.
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See:-
digital rip-control – Macrovision Introduces RipGuard DVD to Dramatically Reduce Digital DVD Piracy, Macrovision, February 15, 2005
February 15th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Will these “RipGuard protected” DVDs play in the current crop of DVD players, or do they expect anyone who wants to watch these to buy a new player?
February 15th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
You know you will have to buy a new player, Valenti has already made that quite clear, a long with his version of ‘fair use’ and backup copies…”If you want a backup copy, then go buy another copy from the store”…..
TT
February 15th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
OK time to buy a hdtv receiver card before the July deadline. Pip the content to that then rip. Does this seem like it would work?
February 15th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
I remember seeing something about how DVD decrypter and MacTheRipper have already adjusted their programs to prevent them choking on “weak sectors” and “dummy tracks” which are not referred to in the menu structure. Since RipGuard claims compatibility with older players, i’m expecting that’s about the only thing theyve done.. but never fear.. it only took an average of 10 days for fully updated code in ripper programs.
February 15th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
You can bet that RipGuard will last no more than a few days after those DVD hit the stores – this is the beauty of the internet.
There is always a crack, a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets through.
February 15th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
unless you’ve reached your monthly Rogers cap
TT
February 15th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
September 28, 2001, 4:00 a.m. PT
“Anti-piracy features making their way onto CDs promise to dramatically alter the online music landscape, potentially handing Microsoft a potent weapon against the leading MP3 format and other rivals in the high-stakes battle over digital-audio standards.”
http://news.com.com/Tripping+the+rippers/2009-1023_3-273619.html
And to think, it took the virtual community only days to figure out a 99 cent marker could bypass their “anti-piracy” software. Like in 2001, the digital world has nothing to fear with this new “threat”. Ripping software will adapt in short order to enable one to copy their favorite movies in case of damage to their original copy. Which ever way you see it, good or bad, burning copies of DVDs and CDs is here to stay… this is merely a hiccup.
February 15th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
i wish you guys would stop publishing shit that scares people.
How many people that are in the prerecorded dvd business other than the seven major movie studios are going to waste a pile of money into worthless technology that would be only applied to new movie releases ?
The rewards would be dubious at best.
Do you realize how expensive it be per dvd for the movie studios to convert their entire and current dvd catalog to the new technology ?
THE EXPENSE WOULD NOT BE WORTH IT ………..
YOU CAN BUY PRERECORDED DVDS AT WAL MART FOR LESS THAN TEN BUCKS.
LOL !!
February 15th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
Copy “protection” that scatters errors around the disk depend on optical drives reading the disk at a high speeds to “prevent” copying, since it overloads the drives error correction.
The fix, rip at 1 or 2x. Sure it takes longer, but its still copyable. Splatting errors all around the disk isnt going to prevent copying.
February 15th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
They’re not really trying to stop copying. They know it can’t be done.
They’re just trying to mint money using the entertainment industry as the suckers.
Cheers!
February 16th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Apparently, since their main source of income is goverment mandated video signal copy “protection” called Macrovision.
February 16th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
As a programmer, I applaud the efforts of companies to employ a ton of programmers and pay them truck loads of money to produce something that will be obsolete ten minutes after it’s released. Talk about job security! Work two years on a copy protection, have it bypassed by a 10 year old with too much free time and a magic marker, rinse and repeat. Where do I sign up for that job?
Copy protection is a waste of time, money, and effort.
February 16th, 2005 at 4:23 pm
I was surprised at the number of places that this press release was quoted – but it’s been very obvious for a long time that most “technology journalists” just don’t understand technology.
The first thing to consider is that all DRM systems are at some level bogus – they are forced to rely on obsfucation by the simple fact that every piece of information needed to display the “protected” content must be available to the player. All they can do is make it hard to find – but if someone looks hard enough, they will work it out.
The designers of the original DVD CSS recognised this, which is why they provided a table of different keys for different players – this meant that if one key was compromised, it could be removed from later discs without affecting any other player. Of course, this didn’t work in the end, since the crypto was weak – as soon as one key was known, it provided enough material (the decrypted title key) for a known plaintext attack on all the other keys, and the entire system was compromised.
So this is just an attempt to add another layer of obsfucation on top of an already cracked framework – but with the additional restriction that it has to be capable of operating with all the players that are currently on the market. In effect, it has to work around holes or grey areas in the spec – and the DVD consortium did a sufficently good job of writing it that I don’t think there are that many of them.
Of course, the more cynical might suspect that this is just an attempt by MVSN to distract attention from the fact that their biggest single source of income (the copy prevention system that’s built into VCRs by legal mandate in the US) is slowly generating less and less income as the number of VCRs sold decreases. Add to this that SafeDisc is getting less popular with the publishers (mostly because it now has a lot of people trying to crack each new release – some of who are very very good. Even a well designed system will have problems standing up to that sort of concerted attack…) and you can see why the company wants some good PR. I personally think that it’s going to end up blowing up in their faces, though – the first release to use this technology will almost certainly end up ripped and posted far quicker than it otherwise would have, just on general principles.
September 25th, 2005 at 4:44 am
It is cool software. I need her.