Tag: DRM
-
Software HD-DVD/Blu-ray Players Updated
The central authority that runs AACS (the anticopying/DRM system used on commercial HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs) announced [April 6, 2007 item] last week the reissue of some software players that can play the discs, “[i]n response to attacks against certain PC-based applications”. The affected applications include WinDVD and probably others. Recall that analysts had previously…
-
EMI To Sell DRM-Free Music
EMI, the world’s third largest record company, announced yesterday that it will sell its music without DRM (copy protection) on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Songs will be available in two formats: the original DRMed format for the original $0.99 price, or a higher-fidelity DRM-free format for $1.29. This is a huge step forward for EMI…
-
AACS: Slow Start on Traitor Tracing
[Previous posts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.] Alex wrote on Thursday about the next step in the breakdown of AACS, the encryption scheme used on next-gen DVD discs (HD-DVD and Blu-ray): last week a person named Arnezami discovered and published a processing key that apparently can be used to…
-
AACS: A Tale of Three Keys
[Previous posts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.] This week brings further developments in the gradual meltdown of AACS (the encryption scheme used for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs). Last Sunday, a member of the Doom9 forum, writing under the pseudonym Arnezami, managed to extract a “processing key” from an HD-DVD player…
-
SonyBMG (Accidentally?) Giving Away MP3 of New Billy Joel Song
Billy Joel’s new song, “All My Life” is being released in stages. Presently it’s available for free streaming from People Magazine’s site. Later in the month it will be available for purchase only at the iTunes Music store. After that it will be released in other online stores. Or at least that was the plan…
-
Apple Offers to Sell DRM-Free Music
The Net is buzzing with talk about the open letter posted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday. In an apparent reversal, Jobs offers to sell MP3 files, free of anti-copying DRM technology, on the iTunes Music Store if the major record companies allow it. Much as I would like to see Apple renounce DRM entirely,…
-
Record Companies Boxed In By Their Own Rhetoric
Reports are popping up all over that the major record companies are cautiously gearing up to sell music in MP3 format, without any DRM (anti-copying) technology. This was the buzz at the recent Midem conference, according to a New York Times story. The record industry has worked for years to frame the DRM issue, with…
-
AACS: Modeling the Battle
[Posts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.] By this point in our series on AACS (the encryption scheme used in HD-DVD and Blu-ray) it should be clear that AACS creates a nontrivial strategic game between the AACS central authority (representing the movie studios) and the attackers who want to defeat AACS.…
-
AACS: Sequence Keys and Tracing
[Posts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.] This is the sixth post in our series on AACS, the encryption scheme used for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. It’s time to introduce another part of AACS: the Sequence Key mechanism. Throughout our AACS discussion, we have done our best to simplify things so…
-
AACS: Title Keys Start Leaking
[Posts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.] Last week we predicted that people would start extracting the title key (the cryptographic key needed to decrypt the contents of a particular next-gen DVD disc) from HD-DVD discs. Indeed, it turns out that WinDVD, a popular software player that runs on PCs, leaves…