CinemaNow DRM Crap
p2pnet.net News:- The word CRAP is increasingly being used to describe anything to do with the corporate world’s DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) technology.
"Originally, I wanted CRAP to stand for Content Restriction, Annulment, and Protection," wrote ZDNet’s David Berlind a whle back. "But Richard Stallman at the Free Software Foundation convinced me to change its meaning to ‘Cancellation, Restriction, and Punishment’."
Now, "I’m against people being fleeced by this kind of crap," posted an anonymous optical engineer on Boing Boing. "How can you sell someone content on media that is so heavily compromised, especially on a format that so heavily relies upon its error correction system to maintain playability? It’s mind boggling!"
The subject in the above instance was CinemaNow’s crappy "Burn to DVD" DRM.
It’s great, says CinemaNow. It’s crap, says an anonyous engineer on Boing Boing.
"Browse the Burn to DVD section and purchase the movie you wish to download," saiys a Google cache of the launch site, going on, "To watch the movie or burn it to DVD, you will need CinemaNow’s easy-to-use DVD Burner software (see below to install). CinemaNow DVDs work with any standard +R or -R blank DVD. Once you have completed the burn process, you can play CinemaNow videos on almost any DVD player."
The trouble was and is, the engineer mentined in Boing Boing found the system was so badly designed that, "it’s likely that DVDs burned with CinemaNow are likely to fail in many commercial DVD players".
It’s based on the deliberate introduction of errors caused by Digital Sum Value (DSV), a sum that represents the ratio of land to pits on the surface of the DVD, says the story, going on:
"The DVD spec notes the possibility of DSV errors and instructs implementers to take care to avoid them, as these errors can cause a host of problems with reading and playing discs."
Also, "the introduction of DSV errors is indiscriminate and uncontrollable – the multitude of possible combinations of DVD burners’ chip-sets, blank media, and other variables means that any attempt to introduce DSV errors will produce unpredictable outcomes".
Boing Boing’s source, "also believes that this technique infringes on several patents, including this one," says the post, continuing:
"My source sums it up neatly in this outraged paragraph: ‘I’m against people being fleeced by this kind of crap. How can you sell someone content on media that is so heavily compromised, especially on a format that so heavily relies upon its error correction system to maintain playability? It’s mind boggling!’
"Update: Tian sez, "Recently, my local news crew has tested out the service and found it to be crap. I have also wrote about the crappy service especially CinemaNow’s Burn To DVD’s DRM. Even though my local news crew was able to burn one DVD successfully, CinemaNow’s ‘one copy only’ DRM can be easily defeated’."
Meanwhile, "CinemaNow shot back stating that the service has been ‘well received by our customers and studios alike,’ (ah, isn’t that the trick?) and that tests had the burned DVDs working on ‘94 percent of DVD players’," says Engadget.
"Which tests and using what DVD players we don’t know, but somehow we don’t expect to have that data readily divulged. Guess there’s only one way to find out though, right? Download a marginally overpriced flick for about ten bucks, get yourself a spindle of DVD-Rs, and go to town."
That’s one way to waste your time and money. And anyhow, WGAS?
Also See:
Digital Restrictions Management – Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
Boing Boing – CinemaNow’s Burn-to-DVD DRM is irresponsibly defective, August 2, 2006
Engadget – CinemaNow claims 94% of download-to-burn DVDs work, August 6, 2006
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