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)."

Comments

Stupid stupid idea

[LiquidCoooled]

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.

Re:Stupid stupid idea

[networkBoy]

Hence the continued popularity of soft ice.
Install soft ice, insstall program, trap dongle call with soft ice, done.

Note that if you do a re-install you will need the dongle again, but at least for day to day operations no more 3-7 dongles packed onto the parallel port conflicting with each other.
-nB

Why Not a Giant Padlock

[SRA8]

Why not place a giant padlock and chains all over it?

Re:Why Not a Giant Padlock

[hal2814]

It didn't work for Pee Wee's bike. Why would it work for this? Francis will get that DVD anyways if he really wants it.

Why?

[Constantine XVI]

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?

it's called a dongle.

[way2trivial]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle

we don't need them back, they sucked originally..

Re:it's called a dongle.

[ehrichweiss]

You're talking "high end medical imaging software", something in the 10's or 100's of thousands of dollars, versus a DVD, something that's bought and sold for under $20. One sells a few thousand copies in its lifetime, if it's lucky, the other sells millions in a year. Not the same thing, IMNSHO. And the reason they use dongles on your software is because they can get away with it since they don't have quite the same threat of piracy; I mean not everyone is going to have medical imaging hardware in their living room next to their flatscreen TV, ya know.

Though to be fair, you haven't seen a real dongle until you get into other lines of work like cable television where the dongle they sell you IS the server and you can't add memory without calling tech support and getting them to adjust your key. Seriously, the software/hardware sells for over $300k and it's little more than a Linux box.

Heh

[androvsky]

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.

Well, it's like anything else.

[Scoria]

If the computer reads it, then it can be cracked. Probably with a seven-line PERL script, no less.

Re:Well, it's like anything else.

[chrismcdirty]

With PERL, someone could probably do it in a one-line script. In the shape of a camel. That will also cook you toast. In fact, I think it's already on CPAN.

Why, I'll just run out and buy it now!

[kimvette]

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.

Not Only Unfriendly But Anti-Consumer...

[__aaclcg7560]

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!

Should spin fine at 40x

[LividBlivet]

For about a second.

Media-less society

[Yvan256]

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".

It was a nice run

[Palshife]

Goddamnit. They've done it. They've ended DVD piracy.

Been there, done that

[TheSpatulaOfLove]

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...

Re:Been there, done that

[Lumpy]

and you forget one small thing that dongles do.....

empower disgruntled employees.

the last job I had one of the production guys was getting fired, he was dating one of the HR girls so he knew it for a week ahead of time.

so his last day there he grabbed every dongle he could find and swapped the plastic covers at random, then swapped all usb and PP dongles around on all the edit suites.

next monday every editing suite was dead with an "unauthorized use" message. it took 2 weeks to discover what happened and only by a electronics savvy IT guy that looked at them very carefully before sending them to the software company.

we could not prove who did it, but several of us knew who it was.

hell stealing a dongle or simply pulling them out and tossing them in the trash would completely screw any company.

as the asshat companies that use dongles on their software will not replace them without you buying them all new at $4500.00 per seat.

Before I left I helped install dongle cracks on every editing station to avoid that issue in the future. To hell with the EULA.

New Tech!

[Slovenian6474]

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.

Or because...

[norminator]

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?

Because that wouldn't be any fun.

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".

Re:Or because...

[ajs318]

Yeah, but the "holy grail" of copy protection schemes is never going to be invented, because it's mathematically impossible. Not just supremely difficult (like factoring a multi-digit number) but actually impossible (like creating energy out of nowhere). If it can be rendered perceptible, it can be copied. Whatever tests it uses to check that it is being viewed legitimately, can be subverted. Even if the player contacts an outside agent for authorisation, the outside agent can be spoofed. Whatever process is employed to trick the copy-protection mechanism, it only needs to be done once. After that, an unlimited number of unprotected copies can be made.

The only thing that might work as an unbreakable copy-protection scheme is to have the decryption performed within the brain of the viewer, so there is never an unencrypted version of anything anywhere. And I can think of only one way to do this: you would have to give the user mind-enhancing drugs and "train" them, with a short film, to perform the decryption. The movie itself would be displayed encrypted, and only viewable by someone trained to decrypt it -- which ability they would naturally lose as the effects of the drug wore off. For future watchings, or party viewings, more pills would be required. (This would suit the studios, as every instance of viewing must be paid for -- someone who watches a movie at a friend's house represents a lost opportunity to sell a movie. This creates a new business model: give away "unwatchable" movies for free and charge for the pills that make them watchable.) If you combined the psychotropic with another substance which reacts with growth hormone to produce nausea or other undesirable effects, you might be able to get enforced age-restriction into the bargain.

One question nobody is answering: How much of the retail price of media is accounted for by copy-protection?
And another: What if original media were sold cheaply enough that it would not be economically viable to make pirate copies?

Stupefyingly bad design

[davidbrit2]

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.

A normal disc:
PI * r^2 - PI * (.4r)^2
PI * r^2 - .16(PI * r^2)
.84(PI * r^2)

The new magical disc:
PI * (.6r^2) - PI * (.4r^2)
.36(PI * r^2) - .16(PI * r^2)
.20(PI * r^2)

So in other words, if my math is correct (and it's entirely possible that it's not), you'd be looking at .20/.84, i.e. about 24% the storage space of a normal DVD. Maybe a gig at best?

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.

Will this actually do anything?

[TheGrit]

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.

Kill it early, save a lot of trouble.

[Kadin2048]

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.

Re:'Nuff said

[eldepeche]

-1, Negates purpose for existence.