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Adam Bresson Demonstrates Fair Use at DefCon

Posted by timothy on from the shameful-that-this-should-be-remarkable dept.

nigelc writes: "Adam Bresson showed how to make copies of copyright-protected videos in a speech at DefCon. To quote the article, 'I hope he's got a lawyer and that they talked to somebody'" From the article, it sounds like Bresson simply used a video conversion box to defeat MacroVision -- something my notorious criminal father has been doing for years.

4 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Blah, which some knowhow you can get rid of it by SkipToMyLou · · Score: 5, Informative

    On some DVD players, you can disable Macrovision by means of uploading a new ROM into the player by burning it onto an ISO 9660 CD-R, or by hitting a secret key combination on the remote. It's mostly APEXes and Daewoos that let you do this; ironic that they are the cheapest yet most hackable DVD players. I have a cute little APEX I scored for $70 at Circuit City... that sucker plays DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, CD-Rs, MP3s (!), and they kitchen sink. Most DVD players have a "Factory setting" menu that you can get to, but you need to know the secret code. Of course you'd never get goodies like this from the big boys (aka Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic).

  2. Why spend $200? by Quixote · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why spend $200 on a box to make a copy of a DVD, when my sub-$100 DVD player will do it for free? Plus, it has no region coding either. Go Apex!

  3. MacroVision Defeating Hardware...?!?! by philovivero · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was at Best Buy a few days ago and found a device into which you plug any two audio/visual devices, and which stated that it would "even out erratic signal levels, enabling the VCR to get a clean image again."

    It is a MacroVision-defeating hardware device, prepackaged, for $50 or so.

    I was actually a bit astounded that someone hadn't come and stomped on the balls of this company.

    For my money, though, it's VideoLan Client or nothing.

    --
    fifth sigma, inc.
  4. Re:Anyone can do this... by metatruk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not so. Macrovision works by pulsating the intensity of the video sync signal. This fluctuation in intensity fools the AGC circuit in the recieving deck causing the picture colors to become distorted, and brighter and dimmer. TVs do not contain this AGC circuit, and therefore, are unaffected by macrovision. A more detailed explanation can be found here: http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/F_MacroVision 1.html#MACROVISION_016