MacBooks Enter a Golden Age of Anti-piracy Cruft: HDCP For All

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/18/macbooks-enter-a-golden-age-of-anti-piracy-cruft-hdcp-for-all/

by vladimir • 18 years ago

47 60 18 years ago

axod• 18 years ago

The irony is if you're geeky enough to connect your computer up to a big display to watch movies etc, you're certainly geeky enough to circumvent a little popup warning.

nailer5• 18 years ago

HDCP is implemented in the video card. The output is encrypted and the HDCP certified device decrypts.

However, ultimately the OS either enforces it or doesn't. And the OS has been pretty weak so far.

Addenda: I'm not talking about iTunes, I'm talking about the OS, which iTunes uses to display video.

m_eiman2• 18 years ago

No need to hack iTunes, just download the movie in a DRM-free format. I've heard that there are places on the Net that has things like that, something with pirates and a bay?

But sure, if the Blu-Ray replacement happens to have a working protection system they might finally pull it off. Too bad for them that the last part of the delivery chain will always be unprotected, unless they find a way to put HDCP in Eye 1.0 wetware.

newt0311• 18 years ago

Switch to linux and the OS stops caring entirely.

tptacek8• 18 years ago

OS X is weaker in this regard than Vista; Vista won't play protected content if the kernel includes unsigned code. But OS X will get there.

trezor• 18 years ago

HDCP only matters to people who support DRM with their money.

Disclaimer: Not me.

timtrueman• 18 years ago

My thoughts exactly. I only purchase media that is DRM-free. Amazon's MP3 store for instance. If they want to make more money they can start by offering more content as DRM-free because otherwise I'm not buying…

Tichy8• 18 years ago

Is Amazon DRM free? Doesn't it encode the name of the buyer in the MP3? (I honestly don't know, it just seems likely they do that).

tptacek8• 18 years ago

In other words, it only matters to people who rent or buy movies.

unalone• 18 years ago

The problem, of course, is that every time somebody runs into a restraint due to DRM, there's a chance of them turning to piracy - which is pretty addictive once it starts.

maximilian• 18 years ago

I would be sooo pissed if the movie i downloaded wouldn't play on my regular TV or projector I setup or something. I don't understand why they would require encryption for an analog out? Even a digital out. The movie-cracker people do everything in software anyway, so it seems like there's really no point in encrypting the transmission link.

tptacek8• 18 years ago

Movie crackers won't necessarily be doing everything in software for long; several major software media components --- like iTunes, Windows Media Player and Windows protected media pathways --- remain effectively unbroken. DRM is steadily improving, to the point where the "analog gap" is becoming more important.

pshc• 18 years ago

Don't they remain unbroken only because there are currently paths of lesser resistance? And iTunes is already routinely hijacked to strip DRM from the iTunes Store.

lutorm• 18 years ago

Does anyone else think that this is incredibly creepy? If this goes on unchecked, it's just a matter of time until you're not allowed to code unless you have a license from the RIAA...

Tichy8• 18 years ago

Well you are not allowed to code for the iPhone unless you have a license from Apple.

I wonder when they will do the same to their desktop computers. It is not as if companies haven't tried that scheme (see Microsoft "certified software" and stuff like that).

Zev2• 18 years ago

You can code without paying for the dev certificate. The SDK is a free download.

You just can't put apps on the app store or your phone without having a cert. There's a slight difference.

asciilifeform4• 18 years ago

Open any LCD monitor. The ribbon cable which connects the VGA/DVI/HDMI decoder board to the LCD panel itself (a separate product, of which there are only a few manufacturers) carries an entirely unencrypted and fairly well-documented signal. With an <$100 FPGA, any HDMI monitor can be turned into a decryptor.

bestes• 18 years ago

Is it really this easy? Has anyone done it? Are these for sale anywhere?

wmf3• 18 years ago

Nobody has done it because that's not the weakest link in the chain. It's easier to just decrypt the file in software.

potatolicious• 18 years ago

You're right that it's unencrypted, but I don't think it's well-documented. Every single panel manufacturer seems to have their own spec for carrying data to the LCD panel proper, and this is all proprietary and not-published. Short of someone reverse-engineering the data it's not quite SO easy to get your data.

asciilifeform4• 18 years ago

All you need is an oscilloscope. (My 1979 HP 300Mhz scope would do fine, had I more free time.)

jwilliams• 18 years ago

Similarly - what happens if you play the same movie in a Virtual Machine?

Could you fire up the movie in a Windows VM on your Mac? Presumably it would play, and the output at the Mac end is unencrypted?

cmars232• 18 years ago

Great. Now we have to get modchips for our laptops too?

stanley• 18 years ago

You can find more MacBook hacking stories here - http://www.applemacbook.com/mods

MacBooks Enter a Golden Age of Anti-piracy Cruft: HDCP For All

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