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AACS Vows to Fight Bloggers

Jonas Wisser writes "The BBC is carrying the story that AACS has promised to take action against those who have posted the AACS crack online. Michael Ayers, chairperson of AACS, noted that the cracked key has now been revoked, and went on to say, 'Some people clearly think it's a First Amendment issue. There is no intent from us to interfere with people's right to discuss copy protection. We respect free speech.' The AACS website tells consumers how they can 'continue to enjoy content protected by AACS' by 'refreshing the encryption keys associated with their HD DVD and Blu-ray software players.'"

13 of 601 comments (clear)

  1. Michael, you're dumb even by MAFIAA standards by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "This is the first round and will not be the last," he added.

    Well, he certainly has that part right. What he fails to appreciate is that he will be on the losing end of every single one of those rounds. Even as he tries to downplay the key by saying it has been revoked, AACS has already lost the second round (as hackers have created a hack that CAN'T be revoked).

    Always a step behind, buddy. But feel free to keep wasting your money and pissing people off.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Re:09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

    The lameness filter is built on compression ratios and obvious problems with the post. (e.g. ALL CAPS!) Encrypted text rarely compresses well, so it passes with flying colors.

  3. Re:09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those of you having trouble reading that, there's a Javascript RC4 decrypter here:

    http://shop-js.sourceforge.net/crypto.htm

  4. Re: Translation by JoshRosenbaum · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's the translation for the lazy:

    While I can respect his point about the issue being a legal one rather than a free speech issue, I would argue that they took the matter too far. It's one thing to revoke the key, then prosecute the original crackers under the DMCA. (As distasteful as that is.) But once the information is in the public realm, it effectively becomes a lost "trade secret".

  5. ho-hum, time for me to go and buy some new clothes by mengu · · Score: 3, Informative
  6. Re:Still lying by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Informative

    Exactly, the scheme is not a 'copy protection device' at all and as such doesn't even fall under the DMCA.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  7. Re: Translation by JoshRosenbaum · · Score: 3, Informative

    Whoops. 4 hours of sleep does that to me. ;) I should've posted as AC too, but too late now.

    Here ya go: ;)

    While I can respect his point about the issue being a legal one rather than a free speech issue, I would argue that they took the matter too far. It's one thing to revoke the key, then prosecute the original crackers under the DMCA. (As distasteful as that is.) But once the information is in the public realm, it effectively becomes a lost "trade secret".

    The DMCA may not recognize encryption keys as trade secrets, but that's all they are. Once the secret is lost, you cannot recover it. You simply have to move on and extract any damages from the party that disclosed the secret in the first place.

    As Mr. Ayers stated, the key was already revoked. If they hadn't tried to put the genie back in the bottle, they wouldn't now have a several-million member strong community of talented and bright individuals trying to crack HD-DVD just to spite them.

  8. we need MORE mirrors by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Informative

    He said tracking down everyone who had published the keys was a "resource intensive exercise". A search on Google shows almost 700,000 pages have published the key.

    only 700k sites?

    come on guys, get CRACKIN'.

    if you want to really make their jobs harder, embed that number EVERYWHERE. keep their minions searching for this for YEARS.

    afterall, they have nothing better (truely) to do with their time ;)

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  9. Re:Cue oft-used Leia quote... by Biotech9 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try Philips instead of Sony, the difference is obvious when you look at their players. Philips have no labels, or movie making divisions, so they have nothing to lose with hardware that is lax about playing as many file types as possible. They already have DVD players with USB ports for Harddrives that play Divx, and media players that record video feed to MPEG-2, play back DivX, and don't have any DRM to speak of.

    Also very easy to crack players, as far as region free goes.

  10. Re:Cue oft-used Leia quote... by orangesquid · · Score: 3, Informative

    I just wrote this:
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>

    unsigned char key[16] = {
      0x09, 0xf9, 0x11, 0x02,
      0x9d, 0x74, 0xe3, 0x5b,
      0xd8, 0x41, 0x56, 0xc5,
      0x63, 0x56, 0x88, 0xc0};

    int main() {
      int s; /* start char */
      int b; /* byte # */
      for(s = 65 ; s <= 75 ; ++s) {
        printf("Start = %c: ", s);
        for(b = 0 ; b < 16 ; ++b) {
          fputc(s + ((key[b] & 0xf0) >> 4), stdout);
          fputc(s + (key[b] & 0x0f), stdout);
        }
        fputc('\n', stdout);
      }
      exit(0);
      return 0;
    }

    And its output:

    Start = A: AJPJBBACJNHEODFLNIEBFGMFGDFGIIMA
    Start = B: BKQKCCBDKOIFPEGMOJFCGHNGHEGHJJNB
    Start = C: CLRLDDCELPJGQFHNPKGDHIOHIFHIKKOC
    Start = D: DMSMEEDFMQKHRGIOQLHEIJPIJGIJLLPD
    Start = E: ENTNFFEGNRLISHJPRMIFJKQJKHJKMMQE
    Start = F: FOUOGGFHOSMJTIKQSNJGKLRKLIKLNNRF
    Start = G: GPVPHHGIPTNKUJLRTOKHLMSLMJLMOOSG
    Start = H: HQWQIIHJQUOLVKMSUPLIMNTMNKMNPPTH
    Start = I: IRXRJJIKRVPMWLNTVQMJNOUNOLNOQQUI
    Start = J: JSYSKKJLSWQNXMOUWRNKOPVOPMOPRRVJ
    Start = K: KTZTLLKMTXROYNPVXSOLPQWPQNPQSSWK

    Let's just start making blog posts where the first letter of each word fits one of these patterns (and include the key via the subject line).  Hell, you could write the README to a hddvd playing program so that each paragraph started with one letter, and the Makefile could generate the key from the README, so you wouldn't be distributing the key with the program...

    --
    --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
  11. Re:Since they're just using Primes by cortana · · Score: 3, Informative

    AFAIK, AACS is just AES. So they key is just 128 bits of random data; it does not have to have any other special qualities.

    HAND!

  12. Re:Cue oft-used Leia quote... by Distan · · Score: 3, Informative

    They (the AACS-LA) are playing games with words.

    When they say they have "revoked the key", they mean they have revoked the device key for a specific software player. They have not done anything about the processing key that is floating around.

  13. Re:Cue oft-used Leia quote... by Wyzard · · Score: 3, Informative

    But I don't really think the key itself could reasonably qualify as software, and I think the DMCA is very specific about banning software that undoes copy protection

    Actually, it isn't. What it actually says is:

    No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--

    • is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
    • has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
    • is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

    (Emphasis mine.) I think the AACS LA could easily argue that the processing key is at the very least a "part thereof".