Play-Doh defeats DRM
p2p news / p2pnet: Bad news for Gary Brant.
“Eyeballs, a severed hand, or fingers carried in ziplock bags. Back alley eye replacement surgery.”
That’s a line from a Clarkson University YubaNet.com item.
Brant is presently touting his VeriTouch P-DRM (Physical Digital Restrictions Management) technology, a Linux-based system that, “eliminates piracy and prevents illegal copies to be made of music, videos, and video games delivered wirelessly or on mini-DVD disk,” as VeriTouch described it confidently when it first came up.
His current effort is MuViBOXX, a set top unit featuring Search and BitTorrent-style p2p file sharing, and aimed at the entertainment cartels, which are still trying to make people believe that DRM can work.
It can’t. Anything that can be seen or heard can be copied one way or another. And trying to sneak DRM onto people’s computers doesn’t work either.
Ask Sony BMG.
With Brant’s box, “The authorized user authenticates via a fingerprint and can then use iVue to listen to music and watch DVD-quality videos, including wireless content delivery and connectivity to existing peripheral A/V equipment,” says VeriTouch.
” ‘Biometric systems automatically measure the unique physiological or behavioral ‘signature’ of an individual, from which a decision can be made to either authenticate or determine that individual’s identity,’ YubaNet has Stephanie C. Schuckers, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Clarkson University,” saying.
“Today, biometric systems are popping up everywhere – in places like hospitals, banks, even college residence halls – to authorize or deny access to medical files, financial accounts, or restricted or private areas.”
But, as with “any identification or security system,” biometric devices are prone to spoofing “or attacks designed to defeat them,” she states.
Schuckers’ biometric research is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, says the story, going on that she’s currently assessing spoofing vulnerability in fingerprint scanners and designing methods to correct for these as part of a $3.1 million interdisciplinary research project funded through the NSF.
And, “In order to assess how vulnerable the scanners are to spoofing, Schuckers and her research team made casts from live fingers using dental materials and used Play-Doh to create molds,” states YubaNet. “They also assembled a collection of cadaver fingers.
“In the laboratory, the researchers then systematically tested more than 60 of the faked samples. The results were a 90 percent false verification rate.”
To rub it in, “The machines could not distinguish between a live sample and a fake one,” she explained.
Clarkson University, in Potsdam, New York is a private school.
Also read:-
YubaNet.com – Clarkson University Engineer Outwits High-Tech Fingerprint Fraud, December 10, 2005
current effort – Thumb-print DRM, December 7, 2005
December 12th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
I’m a bit handicapped here : I have no kids and my english sucks.
so could someone please explain what play-doh is ?
December 12th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
The best way I can describe it is a soft clay that comes in many different colors and never gets hard. Good for playing with (and occasionally eating) when your young.
December 12th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
Play-Doh is Plasticine, which is a synthetic material resembling clay but remaining soft; used as a substitute for clay or wax in modeling
December 12th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/
what about silly putty?
http://sillyputty.com/
December 12th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
Okay, I get the picture now.
Thanks guys.
December 12th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Sorry – I should have explained. I know because our daughter used this stuff a lot when she was very young – until my wife started making our own free version of it. (Luckily, there’s no Play-Doh Industry Association of America ; )
Anyhow, it’s soft, putty-like stuff kids can use to model. And eat. And stick up their noses and into their ears, etc.
Cheers!
December 12th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
Mix the above ingredients.
Add 2 cups colored water (add as much food coloring as you wish). Cook over a low heat stirring constantly until it turns into playdoh. Form into a ball. Cover while it cools or it will dry out. Store in covered bowl. An empty margarine or dessert topping container is perfect.
I loved the stuff when I was a kid, but it always dried out on me because I didn’t take as good care of it as I should have. Doesn’t taste all the great in my opinion neither, too salty.
December 12th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
great – now we’ll probably have to show id to buy the above ingrediance so the RIAA & cohorts can come inspect how we use them. or the US will just ban them
December 12th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
what the hell is cream of tartar?
December 12th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
What the hell is scream of tartar?
Lols, could not resist. That’s that dude holding the bloody sword, riding hell bent, yelling his lungs out. (errr, or was that the Mongolians?)
*A spice I think, good lady.
December 12th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
that sucks. cream of tartar doesn’t exist where i live. no one has ever heard of it.
other play-doh recipes call for something called alum, which also doesn’t exist here.
same with corn syrup – can’t be found, so i couldn’t even make candy apples for halloween.
December 12th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
“Brant is presently touting his VeriTouch P-DRM (Physical Digital Restrictions Management) technology, a Linux-based system that, “eliminates piracy and prevents illegal copies to be made of music, videos, and video games delivered wirelessly or on mini-DVD disk,”
What a great idea. To listen t a song you must first give your fingerprint to ????, who could give it to the FBI for free, as a payment for past favors. Thereby the costs of the war on terrorism will be reduced for the benefit of all Americans.
To the Americans I say this: Do not feel that ???? is treating you as a supect because they want your fingerprints. To ???? you are already a criminal if you use the Internet or buy blank disks.
Of course nothing can stop the sharing of files.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com