Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Interoperable DRM Really Less Secure?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the throwing-away-the-key dept.

Crouch and hold writes "Are closed DRM schemes like FairPlay more secure than interoperable ones? Based on the number of cracks, it doesn't look like it. 'When it comes to DRM, what history actually teaches us is that one approach is no more secure than the other in practice, as they relate to the keeping of secrets. Windows Media DRM has had fewer security breaches than Apple's FairPlay, yet WM DRM is licensed out the wazoo: there are more than a dozen companies with WM DRM licenses.'"

4 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. +5 informative by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Funny

    Windows Media DRM has had fewer security breaches than Apple's FairPlay, yet WM DRM is licensed out the wazoo

    I had no idea that the MS licensing department was actually an orifice.

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
  2. Re:Insecurity vs policy by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If Apple deliberately set the bar low, then they fulfill their obligation and allow the counter-culture to flourish as much as the "official" party line.

    Bingo!

    Apple is doing the minimum necessary in order to be allowed to sell content. Microsoft is trying to do the maximum possible in order to sell the security system to the content owners.

    Their markets are entirely different, so their products are entirely different.

    KFG

  3. Security through Obscurity by flaming+error · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does Swiss Cheese have more holes when its package is opened or when it is closed?

  4. You missed a bit by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Quite an important bit, actually.

    Apple had to sign over the right for the record-labels to pull their entire catalogue from the iTunes store, if a breach happens and Apple don't fix it in a timely manner.

    Jobs doesn't care about DRM, but (because he's sane) he doesn't want to lose the iTunes store either - here's his nightmare scenario:

    • Apple licence fairplay to all who'll pay the fee
    • Some no-mark MP3-player company pays the fee, gains the licence, but screws up and somehow the encryption codes are made public - a bit like the first crack of DVD's was because some no-mark company screwed up their encryption key
    • Apple release a fix
    • No-mark company doesn't release the fix for *their* client-base, maybe there's no firmware update...
    • Apple lose all their iTunes songs from the "big 4".


    Now Apple can try and pin liability on No-mark company, but at the end of the day, the iTunes store contract is between Apple and [insert record label], and if fairplay is compromised, [record-label] are fully entitled to pull their catalogue...

    See it now ?

    Simon
    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!