Microsoft's DRM in Disarray
Microsoft
are suing an unknown hacker for continually cracking their
DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, showing once again they
simply don't understand how hackers work.The basis of their lawsuit against an individual known only as "Viodentia" is that in order to so relentlessly keep cracking their DRM algorithms he/she must have access to their source code. It therefore logically follows that anyone who finds a hole in Internet Explorer or figures out buffer overruns in their vector graphics libraries also has their source. As Penn & Teller would say, Bullshit!
They haven't learned anything from the case of "DVD Jon" who, as a teenager, helped crack the Content Scrambling System found on DVDs. Where you have a system whose inputs and outputs can be examined and analysed, someone's going to crack it. No source code necessary.
"...whomever is producing
the DRM, even if it is the biggest software
maker
in the world, they are going to have to continually update and change
that DRM because it is going to be cracked." - Allonn Levy,
an attorney specializing in intellectual property on the Internet.
(More)
Viodentia's program, by the way, is called "FairUse4WM".
"Any guess on how long it
will take Microsoft to patch Media Player
once again? And then how long before the FairUse4WM people update their
own software? Certainly much less time than it will take Microsoft and
the
recording industry to realize they're playing a losing game, and that
trying to make digital files uncopyable is like trying to make water
not wet." - Security
consultant, Bruce Schneier. (More)
Of course an upstanding and law-abiding blog like this would never refer you to the sort of sites that stock Viodentia's program. So please do not click here, here, or here!
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Comments
i had to download the software for my 12yr daughter. as responsible parents we pointed out the facts of supporting your fav band by buying their tracks rather than downloading for free from her mates. we showed her the official download sites, promised to pay for a limited number of songs to get her started, and found because of the draconian over the top DRM she could not play them on her phone. pirated mp3's no probs, but following the rules means no music on her player of choice
Posted by: grant | October 4, 2006 6:23 PM