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Decryption Keys For HD-DVD Found, Confirmed

kad77 writes "It appears that, despite skepticism, 'muslix64' was the real deal. Starting from a riddle posted on pastebin.com, members on the doom9 forum identified the Title key for the HD-DVD release 'Serenity.' Volume Unique Keys and Title keys for other discs followed within hours, confirming that software HD-DVD players, like any common program, store important run-time data in memory. Here's a link to decryption utility and sleuthing info in the original doom9 forum thread. The Fair Use crowd has won Round One; now how will the industry respond?"

10 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. Wait!!! by sulli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't release the crack until after the standard is settled! Now all the studios will go Blu-Ray only.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  2. Re:The fair use crowd? by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not every use of a copyrighted work is fair. BackupHDDVD is just as useful to pirates. or to people who have monitors capable of displaying full resolution HD content, but are not permitted to because of a lack of HDCP

    or people who want to watch movies they bought on their mythtv system

    or people who like to buy movies and watch them, but don't run windows
  3. The response will be the dumping of HDDVD. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quite simple. The content industry will simply dump the format, after all, there's an alternative. Now it's high time to show that BluRay is just as "consumer friendly" and break it for good, so there is no alternative left, and if the studios want to get their content to the customer, they have to accept that DRM is useless in their strife to protect their rights.

    The point is to create as much damage as possible, so the industry learns that the only one hurt by DRM are they themselves. Revoked keys mean more work, more expense, more hassle and dissatisfied customers who have to jump the hoops. This will in turn create more awareness for DRM and the problems it creates.

    We have to teach the studios that DRM is a failure. That it only generates hassle and problems for their paying customer and is no barriere or even a deterrent for the pirates. For this, the customer has to be the one hurt, too. Learn the easy or the hard way, learn about DRM by investigating or by having your tools stop working.

    Yes, that's not the usual gentle way of teaching. But appearantly some people don't learn 'fore it starts to hurt.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Again, this is NOT a crack! by KonoWatakushi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    New disks can be pressed with new keys, and the compromised software player will have it's key revoked. As such, this is not a generally useful solution. AACS remains secure, and at best, we may see individual keys available for certain pressings of certain discs. This approach will never provide general playback as DeCSS does.

    However, it is my understanding that the decryption process can be done by the TPM; once this is supported, the problem will be much more difficult. Make no mistake, the battle has only just begun. Before long, software based attacks may be rendered impossible.

  5. When will tech people starting getting by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    comedy awards? This is hilarious. Spending all that money on DRM, implementing new media, only to have the encryption cracked before launch day (practically) must be like trying to nail jello to the wall using $100,000 nails. (Has Mythbusters tried nailing jello to a wall yet?)

    The real question is not how they will respond, but when will they learn?

  6. Analog Hole by alexgieg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if they one day develop a perfect DRM scheme full of unbreakable secure paths, it won't be possible to avoid someone simply removing the actual LCD screen, wiring the signals instructing which pixels should turn on and off to a 3rd party device, and recording the unencrypted content in raw format.

    No piracy is being stopped by these means. They're and will always be utterly useless.

    --
    Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
  7. It does hurt the consumer by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the early adopters, who bought high-end video cards without HDCP, or very nice HDTVs, also witohut HDCP? They now have to pray that somebody (Sony?) sees the light and doesn't trip the "artificially cripple old HDTVs" flag.

    So, because the MPAA is afraid of an attack that isn't feasable, and may never be, they are forcing early to buy new hardware (for no good reason). I can't help but wonder if this wasn't a simple money grab -- force everyone to upgrade so they pay you twice for the same hardware.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  8. Re:Who cares about existing titles? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everyone seems to be missing the point. Existing titles are chump change. Just make the next pressing with the new key. The flurry seems to center around release dates anyway, so no future discs will decode on the compromised player.

    Yeah, right. Take a look at the prices for DVD seasons of for example Babylon 5 or Star Trek... they're incredibly expensive even though they're many years old. How much does Disney classics go for again? Besides, it's probably not like pirates are going to announce their player keys, they'll likely just release the titles.

    The sad thing is that it'll work for release groups having decryption keys and pirates getting decrypted versions, while it probably won't work for average consumers who wants to do fair use like back-ups, format shift, non-HDCP screens and so on, because they don't have a disc from the same batch.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  9. Re:Too many customers ARE 'criminals' though by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many "customers" act as criminals then bitch and moan when they're being treated as such.

    Only because exercising fair use is acting like a criminal. Except its only acting; it isn't being.

    The actions of a criminal can also be the actions of a law-abiding citizen legally exercising his rights. It is to what ends the acts are performed that (are supposed to) define them as criminal.

    I can swing my fists in the air as long as I like as long as I don't hit your nose. It's bad laws like the DMCA that would make swinging my fists in the privacy of my single-occupancy home a crime.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  10. Re:Too many customers ARE 'criminals' though by The+Master+Control+P · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "What is needed is a DRM that is advanced enough to be flexible enough to allow all "fair use" while curtailing piracy."

    DRM will never be this advanced, because this proposal is fundamentally impossible, because it implies logically inconsistent outcomes. Either I can copy no part of the video for any reason, or I can copy some part of the video (no matter how small) for any reason. If I can copy any part, even screenshot by screenshot, for any reason, I can re-assemble it outside the player and the DRM is therefore useless. If I can't, fair use is violated.

    DRM, in all it's manifold and perverted forms, can go to hell.