Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Janus DRM Software Officially Unveiled
hype7 writes "News.com.com is reporting the official unveiling of Microsoft's new DRM system, internally dubbed 'Janus'. Interestingly enough, a wide variety of companies including AOL, Dell, Disney, Napster and Freescale, a subsidiary of Motorola, have all signed on to the technology. Whilst some content providers and producers are keen, it remains to be seen what consumers will think - 'the new digital rights management tools include features that would protect content that is streamed around a home network, or even block data pathways potentially deemed 'unsafe,' such as the traditional analog outputs on a high-definition TV set. That's a feature that has been sought by movie studios in advance of the move to digital television.' I love the quotes from the MS rep - 'This release of technology really enables all kinds of new scenarios that are emerging now,' said Jason Reindorp, a group manager in Microsoft's Windows digital media unit. 'We're taking quite a holistic view.' It's good to see Microsoft taking a holistic view of preventing the consumer doing what they want with their paid for content, and protecting us from unsafe data pathways."
Over-the-air HDTV is a done deal; it's unencrypted with the broadcast flag to "control" copying. No one is suggesting using Janus for over-the-air HDTV broadcasts.
The application for Janus is mentioned in the article: playing rented music on portable players.
It's very unlikely that someone will find a way to beat public key and AES encryption.
That's not true... you don't need to "break the encryption" because the very nature of DRM encryption is that the client is doing the decryption himself. At some level you have to trust the client not to reveal the key to the user. All a hacker needs to do is figure out how it's encrypted and what the key is. The key is on your computer. You don't need to "break" anything.
- grab the data when it is in the clear. This is what the iTunes crackers do.
That's what qtFairUse did - snagged the data as it went through quicktime. But PlayFair is different and better - dvdJohn figured out how iTunes generates the key (from HD serial number and stuff) and that's the trick. No breaking of encryption is involved.
I think what you're failing to understand is that all DRM mechanisms that have so far been conceived rely on the client at some level to hide the key or the mechanism of the encryption. As a programmer (but not a encryption expert) it is impossible for me to envision any other kind of DRM besides "security through obscurity" and that's why I agree with the grandparent that every popular DRM format will be cracked in time.
Never mind that ANYTHING you can see or hear can be recorded, DRM or not, from an analog signal using advanced technology such as "sound cards" or even "tape recorders".