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DVDs w/ Built in USB Ports for Copy Protection
An anonymous reader writes "Aladdin has come up with a new way of restricting the data stored on optical discs. It's 'XCD' format has a chip built directly into the disc and which fits into a USB port. So, a user needs to plug the disc into their computer to access a cryptophic key before being able to use the data stored on the disc (presumably in some sort of proprietary player)."
With USB memory keys now containing more data than a cd or dvd, why not just sell the program on the key itself and stop messing about with systems that might break peoples hardware?
The software could run, detect its host key is plugged in (hell, they could make a custom key with an encrypted read only block if they like your software can try to write to that area, and if it managed it it knows its fake...).
The data can be protected by cryptographic magic and the shareholders are happy.
Whilst this won't stop all forms of hacking, it will certainly stop the normal folks from having a go and ensures that the hardware isn't broken by putting unbalanced pointy edged crap into the dvd drive.
I'm not even considering how you would get this "key" into a computer with cramped usb slots.
The only thing a key that looks like the one described should ever be needed is for a petrol station toilet key.
liqbase
Why not place a giant padlock and chains all over it?
Someone please tell me why they don't just put the damn movie on some sort of USB storage to begin with, and avoid borking up our perfectly good normal DVD drives?
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle
we don't need them back, they sucked originally..
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Okay, this one's hilariously bad, to the point of hurting anyone that even thinks about trying to sell it. I can only presume this might be intended for some sort of distribution of classified... no, that doesn't make sense either. But it's just a patent application, a good example of people throwing every idea against the wall to see what sticks. Hint: This won't.
why don't they just ship a damn dongle with everything that can be possible used with a pc? rip the cd/dvd/game/movie all you want; it won't work without the dongle. as a matter of fact, give the fucking media away. charge for the dongle. been doing this shit for thirty years now.
The market will dictate whether these things will be around for a while or not. Most likely, people won't buy them, and they'll go the way of the divx disc.
If the computer reads it, then it can be cracked. Probably with a seven-line PERL script, no less.
Do you like German cars?
Different organizations working to prevent the erosion of the distribution based market. I have a hard time that this will ever catch on.
1) It adds no value to the content of the delivery.
2) It makes it more difficult for customers to use the product.
This might hit some nitch market. It might work acceptably for software sales (infact, the dongle trick has been used for years on software), where the interface and consumer expectations differ. But this will never work in the entertainment industry with out industry wide adoption (read: will never happen).
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I know I want to buy a movie format that I:
a. can't play on my existing PC (running Linux)
b. can't play using my existing DVD players
c. will lose the god damned dongle for
d. will not obtain any benefit from. In fact, I'll LOSE my fair use rights.
Thanks, but after thinking it over really hard, I decided to pass on it.
Hint: drop the DRM.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Every once in a great while, something comes along that is such a mindbogglingly stupid idea that there's no need to even comment on it. I'm not even going to dignify this idea with an explanation of why it's so stupid; I think it speaks for itself. I will say, however, that anyone who actually buys one of these things should be shot in the head to make their death quick and painless, because at least that way, we won't risk their idiocy potentially harming one or more of the rest of us when they tell their friends, "Hey, watch this!"
Mental note: Never buy stock in a company named Aladdin...
A DVD with a USB dongle. It's bad enough that I have to break open the shrink wrap, cut open the security tape on three sides, and undo the pair of latches on the case to get to the DVD. Now they want me to plug in the dongle?! I don't think so!
How amazing!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
For about a second.
MP3 players, iPods, media centers (and the soon-to-arrive Apple "iTV")... We don't want to handle media. When I buy a DVD, I rip it in H.264/AAC and add it to my "movies hard drive". The last thing I want is a media that makes me handle it twice to watch its content, not to mention the software compatibility issues (I run OS X, not Windows).
Another case of "just because you can doesn't mean you should".
Goddamnit. They've done it. They've ended DVD piracy.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
"Hey Bob? I know how we spent millions of dollars developing this technology and all. But the cryptographic key that's in the USB part of the disc is data right?"
"Yeah... and?"
"Well... They can't change the key that's on the USB part, because the encrypted data itself on the disc will have to remain static right?"
"What's your point?"
"Then wouldn't we have saved ourselves millions and millions of dollars by just having that key on the optical disc part to begin with?"
"..."
Why not just bring in unemployeed people to distribute with each disk. They stand by your keyboard and slap your hand everytime you try to do something with the disk that manufacturer doesn't like. Bring them in on H1B.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
My company invested in the Aladdin dongle technology for one of our main software suites. It created a major support nightmare when the dongle failed, didn't release the proper license, didn't read the dongle during application launch, etc etc etc.
It lasted about a year, when our marketshare shrank to the point of near death did they finally realize that people liked the software, but couldn't overcome the licensing problems that came with it. In my opinion, we haven't recovered from it since...
Now, to use this DVD, you must put it in your drive like normal, plug in a dongle, unplug it within 3 seconds and plug it back in again, type in a 50 digit code, then download an application to report back to the company to make sure it's a genuine dvd, then type in the 14th word on the back cover of the dvd case, scan your reciept and email it to the verification address, run around your house 3 times (to control stress levels), and then mail in your proof of purchase and you can start using the program in 6-8 weeks. ...or you can crack it.
Wow. I really want to crawl under my desk and find a free USB port on the back of my computer where there is enough space for something the size of a CD not to run into the cables back there so that the disc can exchange keys, then undo it and stick it in my CD drive. That sounds like a lot of fun. Why didn't I request this feature before?
Oh, and binding the disc to my computer that I'm about to replace is definitely a good idea!
because it will take no effort at all to hack it.
Actually, I think it's becase a whole bunch of companies want to invent the "holy grail" of copy protection schemes (the connotation of the word scheme makes it fit well here, I think), so they run around making up wildly rediculous stuff that either doesn't work, noone wants it, or is easily bypassed (using magic markers, the shift key, etc.). In the end it just annoys people, but these companies must be getting paid by the so-called content providers, because they never stop trying to think of silly new ways to do things, not realizing that their complicated schemes just annoy legitimate consumers and barely begin to challenge the "pirates".
Wouldn't be much easier to put the data in a RFID chip? That could be easily integrated in a reader, and from the point of view of the user the only difference would be that the "new-improved" DVD would simply only play in the "new-improved" DVD-Player. Enough of a hassel, certainly, but if they started selling all new DVD players with that RFID-reading technology some years _before_ they brought one DVD film with the protection, then they would certainly have a chance. Spceially if they do that with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players. As the format is just-born, the people will just identify High-Definition-DVD with Copy-Protected-DVD.
Of course all that is moot, because you only need one person with a compliant DVD reader to extract the film data and compress it into a 4 Gb MPEG-4 film that will fit in a standard DVD, and then share it away.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
No, it is to make money.
Lots and lots of money.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Okay, judging from that crude diagram, they've left, at best, 33% of the radius of the disc's usable media surface intact (the dotted line, I presume). Let's do a little geometry, accounting for the unusable portion in the center of the disc at around .4r, and the usable portion extending to, let's say, .6r.
.16(PI * r^2)
.84(PI * r^2)
.36(PI * r^2) - .16(PI * r^2)
.20(PI * r^2)
.20/.84, i.e. about 24% the storage space of a normal DVD. Maybe a gig at best?
A normal disc:
PI * r^2 - PI * (.4r)^2
PI * r^2 -
The new magical disc:
PI * (.6r^2) - PI * (.4r^2)
So in other words, if my math is correct (and it's entirely possible that it's not), you'd be looking at
And I'm sure these guys will go so much trouble to balance these things properly! Even a well balanced commercial disc in a very high speed DVD drive creates an unnerving amount of noise and vibration. I shudder to think of what would happen with the center of mass potentially thrown way off center from the cuts and the electronics, and the tremendous amount of air turbulence you'd end up with from the shape of that thing. You'd be lucky if it didn't destroy itself and/or the drive within seconds if the motor tried to crank it up to full speed.
In short, there's no way in hell this will ever make it to market, for these reasons, and reasons others have already stated.
That USB scheme really expensive... and quite likely to damage the drive if the disk isn't manufactured perfectly. Heck, I have some perfectly round CD's that make my entire computer whine and vibrate in a rather anxiety-provoking way.
Why don't manufacturers take a look at the various systems deployed in the heyday of MS-DOS? Vault's PROLOK system involved a unique, laser-etched physical hole in the diskette. It was used by Ashton-Tate, IIRC. It would have to be a better idea than this one.
Of course, if manufacturers really took a look at the various systems deployed in the heyday of MS-DOS, they might notice that all of them added a burden to the cost-of-goods, none of them worked, all of them were cracked, all of them created ill-will among honest customers, and all of them were abandoned after a few years.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
So a key needs to be installed before a CD can be read. How will this solve any copy protection issues once it is "unlocked"? Despite the probable DRM; a way will be found to somehow copy the data. The only purpose it will serve is an extra hassle to the average consumer and yet another reason to download illegally.
Awesome work there...
I hate artificial restrictions on what you can do with software. It's just like old-time minicomputers that could be upgraded to the faster, three times more expensive version by resoldering a wire inside.
It's almost a crime not to be able to use hardware or software you own to its full potential because of silly "licensing issues".
-Z
Er, no.
That's like saying "eh, that DMCA bill is just a bunch of Congresscritters doing some research into ways to make a buck. Until it's on the House floor for a vote, it should just be considered interesting thoughts."
By the time Hollywood is trying to push something down your throat, it's probably already too late. This sort of stupidity needs to be nipped in the bud; the idiot executives who spend millions on these systems and millions more buying laws to force them on us, need to learn that no DRM scheme will last against the concerted effort of thousands of people. It's fundamentally flawed, irretrievably broken, and it doesn't matter if they put the decryption key on a USB dongle, or a special sector of the disc, or over the Internet.
All DRM is broken, it's just a question of how obnoxious it is to legitimate users. Systems that just reek of stupidity, like this one does, should be killed quickly before they can gain any traction.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
It's almost a crime not to be able to use hardware or software you own to its full potential because of silly "licensing issues".
So if I sold you a personal accounting program, you should be able to sell accounting services with it? Companies don't do it just for kicks and giggles, they do it because there's a high-margin market and the cheapest way to serve both markets is to have some sort of switch. If they couldn't put licensing restrictions you'd have one price that'd be overpriced for individuals and underpriced for corporations. You'd have to go for one market, or feature-cripple the personal edition until it's no longer usable for selling a service.
Same way with hardware, it's not just minimachines - controller and RAID cards are essentially the same. nVidia and ATI disable pipelines. Intel and AMD place their processors in lower speed bins than they test for. IBM used to ship complete racks - almost every feature you wanted, they just enabled it. Why? It's not because they were "silly", it's because you shouldn't get more for that price. The only reason they didn't leave it out or forever burn away the capability is because voiding your warranty, soldering etc. is enough of a deterrant. If everyone used it "to its full potentional" they would cripple it properly until that was the full potential.
You don't like pricing by purpose? You don't like pricing by volume? You want a price that is completely off target because of something that you could have been doing with the software? Then go ahead. The only thing you'll get is some very poorly mismatched feature-crippled product variations trying to fence you off in the same category. I'd much rather have a restriction by license than a restriction by features.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
If properly encoded, H.264/AAC beats DivX/MP3 hands down. H.264 is "part 10" of MPEG-4, so it's like the latest version of MPEG-4. You wouldn't believe the difference if you're using the same bitrate for both.
.avi files aren't even valid as far as specs are concerned (VBR MP3 breaks the specs, or so I've heard). Trying to play most .avi files (DivX/XviD) on OS X is like trying to play Quicktime on Linux (I guess). Too many CODECs, too many versions of DivX, etc.
.mp4 files, even though it can take about 12 hours to rip a 2 hours movie from DVD to H.264/AAC (quality setting 60 in HandBrake) on my G4/1.42GHz. I don't care about the encoding time, in the end it's the playback quality that matters.
There's also the fact that nobody uses DivX/MP3 in the media, but H.264/AAC is being used today by broadcasters and the television industry. Never mind the fact that there's a lof of DVD players compatible with DivX, they exists only because people illegally download movies from the net.
Not to mention the fact that most DivX
I'll stick with H.264/AAC