Denial Of Service Attacks On RIAA & MPAA Are A Really Dumb Idea

Intel Threatens To Use The DMCA Against Anyone Who Uses The HDCP Crack

from the that'll-win-them-over dept

Mon, Sep 20th 2010 2:25am — Mike Masnick

Well, isn't this nice? Intel, who recently confirmed that the HDCP master key was, in fact, leaked, has also decided that it's going to threaten to sue anyone who makes use of it, under the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. The last gasp effort of those who still want to believe in DRM: after it's cracked, they'll wave the DMCA at you. Perhaps rather than falling back on DMCA threats, Intel could spend its efforts explaining to Hollywood why DRM is a mistake.

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Filed Under: drm, hdcp
Companies: intel

37 Comments

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BearGriz72 (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 2:37am

EPIC
FAIL!
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cc (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 2:41am

Intel, a provider of DRM technology, wouldn't try to convince Hollywood that DRM is a bad idea. I'm sure Intel are more than happy to provide Hollywood with rope to hang themselves, as long as they get paid.

Intel is making DMCA threats to cover its own ass, because its technology has failed at its intended purpose. Of course they saw this coming since the beginning, and this is just to make sure Hollywood doesn't hold them responsible in any way. Standard procedure, I'd say.
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Yogi, 20 Sep 2010 @ 2:44am

figures
"the courts are the last refuge of the scoundrel"

And there is one hell of a long list of scoundrels in the US.
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The Infamous Joe (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 3:14am

Of course.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
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ofb2632 (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 3:24am

How exactly is using the correct master key an anti-circumvention? i would love to see that explained in court.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 3:56am

Re:
Is circumventing the protection on your TV.

Blurays use a different encryption that already broken and can be copied freely, the HDCP is just for live streams and such.

But as many have pointed out, is easier to use the own equipment HDCP to do copying, so HDCP broken was not that important to many. It is more of a statement, because in practice it didn't work anyways.

How else would Intel fool the suckers?
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Wig, 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:06am

Why?
If I understand correctly, the master key was leaked, not hacked, cracked, reverse engineered, circumvented ... So why threaten with the DCMA anti-circumvention?

If it is used to generate a key pair, it is the correct, intended use. No circumvention whatsoever.

What am I missing?
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The eejit (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:09am

Re: Why?
You're missing the point.
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Eric, 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:18am

I'm sure the people who would make the most use out of this (pirates) are really worried about intel coming after them with the dmca.. considering all the other things people could come after them for. My guess is, this is more to prevent companies from using the key to create some software to make it easy for your standard user.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:33am

Wow - looks like Intel is on the back foot on this one. Threatening lawsuits? Unbelievable. First you have to prove it.

Put a tax on blank BluRays and be done with it.
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Marius, 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:40am

No longer efficient
As far as I know DMCA only applies to protection methods that are "effective":

Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection
and effective legal remedies against the circumvention
of effective technological measures that are used
by authors in connection with the exercise of their
rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and
that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are
not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted
by law.

How effective is a protection if everyone knows how to decrypt it?
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fogbugzd (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:51am

Re:
Taxing media has never done anything except take money from the wrong people and give it to the wrong people.

Most pirated movies go to hard disk, smartphones, iPads, and other devices. Downloadedd movies rarely make it to blueray. You could try taxing all the things it does go to, but a couple of years from now it would be going somewhere else we never thought of. Meanwhile everyone owning a smartphone or hard drive would be paying the tax and piracy would continue unabated.
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BoloMKXXVIII (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 5:05am

Re: Eric
Pirates make the most use of this? How about Apple / Linux users? Watching BluRay movies on a Mac or Linux box would be a regular use I expect.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 5:20am

Re: Re: Eric
You can already rip Bluray disks you don't need HDCP to watch them.

Unless you want to watch it directly, to which I'm certain someone will make an illegal patch any day now.
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Michael Lockyear, 20 Sep 2010 @ 5:27am

Who cares?
The DMCA is American...the last time I checked all of my electronics come from China (or Taiwan, Malaysia, etc)!

For a non-American this means that sooner or later our devices will bypass this form of DRM "out of the box"...devices supporting the DRM will be (are) worth less than devices which just work.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 5:48am

OHHHHHH canada
we dont have dmca HAHA intel F YOU
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 5:55am

Re: OHHHHHH canada
Imagine, if you will, that ACTA has been enacted in your country... And then look at this issue.

I agree, many countries around the world don't have the DMCA, but the sword of Damocles called ACTA is hanging above our heads, all because of the greedy asshats from the RIAA and the MPAA.
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Richard (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:05am

Re: Re: Eric
Watching BluRay movies on a Mac or Linux box would be a regular use I expect.
Sadly it's not even a possible use this is a different part of the scheme. To play a disc on Linux you need to crack the AACS encryption on the disc itself.

What this enables you to do is to make a box that will take HDCP encrypted data from a blu ray player and put that into plain digital video format - allowing it to be recorded on an HD recorder.

Only one person in the world needs to have such a device to enable every Blu-ray that is released to be reformatted in unprotected form and copied across either the internet or sneakernet.
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Jim, 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:19am

I'd be shocked if they didn't
Intel gets license fees for each OEM and for each device that uses HDCP. Hollywood will surely also continue to mandate HDCP. That means companies like Samsung and Toshiba MUST get a license from Intel if they are going be sure their devices can play Hollywood movies. If the folks at Intel are smart (and I think they are), they're already exploiting that monopoly power to increase profits in other areas.

Of course Intel will sue to make sure everyone (or at least all those that can be sued) will continue to be forced to use the Intel-controlled standard and continue to pay Intel license fees. As long as they can do that, whether or not that standard has been cracked is irrelevant to Intel.

Supposed you had a business plan that relied on cracking HDCP. Do you think any VC would fund it knowing that Intel's legal department would come down on you like a duck on a June bug? Not likely.
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pegr, 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:30am

Not simple (but not tough)
Since decrypting at the wire level gets you an uncompressed digital stream, any "circumvention device" (other than something you plug directly into a monitor) will have to compress the stream before handing it off to a recording device. This is something a tad more complex than just a tap.

On the other hand, if some asian company makes a magic box that just lets you connect your blue-ray to any monitor, people will not understand why that is so "bad", and that will make our case even better to "joe-six-pack".

Intel will not be the heavy. They have no standing. Anything they say now is to cover their behinds. They are speaking to their customers, not us.

The only reason Intel is speaking now is because their customers are now "deer-in-the-headlights". Somebody had to say sumptin!

(As you sow, so shall you reap!)
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:31am

Re:
Although the article mentions the DMCA, I don't see where Intel says that's the stick they plan to use. I could see other arguments, such as copyright and liscencing, though I'm not sure how strong those cases would be.
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Jimr (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:33am

software emulation WILL be released.
Once a software emulation of the process IS released to the internet it WILL be impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.
Most likely it will be written/release from some part of the globe where the DMCA and it's enforcement will be totally useless. Beside which the first adopters of this knowledge do not really care or worry about any stupid laws and their consequences.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:53am

Maybe they'd have to give the money back.
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Richard (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 7:02am

Re: Not simple (but not tough)
A standalone HD recorder or video grab card should be capable of compressing raw HD video. After all my $300 HD camcorder does it.

The most likely scenario is a monitor that has HDMI outputs for daisy chaining. It is cheaper if that output doesn't do HDCP - but just sends out unencrypted HDMI data (like my camcorder does).

Having said that - why are we bothering to even discuss this in a world where you can get hold of Slysofts anyDVD - HD software with a couple of mouse clicks?
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Kevin (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 7:05am

Cause that's how you win the hearts and minds.
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Jason, 20 Sep 2010 @ 7:31am

Re: Re: Eric
Yep. Finally I can now think about getting a blu-ray drive for my DVR, since I'll finally be able to use it.

NOW that DRM is broken I might finally begin to buy blu-ray discs. Its ironic, but its true. DRM is a disaster and I will not support any product that has unbroken DRM. It now appears that blu-ray (from my perspective) is ok to use.

Intel's being idiotic in its desire to now use the courts to, in my case at least, continue to make me not want to buy blu-ray discs.....
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interval (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 7:55am

Re: Re: Re: Eric
"Intel's being idiotic in its desire to now use the courts to, in my case at least, continue to make me not want to buy blu-ray discs....."

As stated earlier its just bluster to get the studios off their back. Intel won't actually bring one case to court.
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GrinningFool, 20 Sep 2010 @ 8:11am

It will be interesting to see if they really do it. Intel is sensitive to the backlash of the community but does need to look tough for their licensees sake.
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PogyBogy, 20 Sep 2010 @ 8:26am

HEHEHHE sue me
I have successfully used the HDCP master key to unencrypt, and then stream media off of my pc unencrypted. come and get me Intel.
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crade (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 8:45am

Aren't these sort of situations the whole reason they wanted that anti-circumvention stuff?
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 9:35am

Re: Re:
"Meanwhile everyone owning a smartphone or hard drive would be paying the tax and piracy would continue unabated."

Probably make it worse. If I'm paying for it, I'm damn well going to be using it. My only exception to that rule is car insurance. I hope to never use that.
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AJB, 20 Sep 2010 @ 9:38am

Re: Re: Re: Eric
The picture quality increase is just not that much better than an upscaled DVD. I still maintain that BluRay is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the American buying public. They used their monopoly power to shut down their competitors, then charged exorbitant prices for their product (almost triple for the discs and five to ten times for the player). Where was the Congress when this anti-competitive behavior was being done? Why were the movie studios able to restrict content to just one format? The biggest loser is the consumer and the government did NOTHING to protect their interest.
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nasch (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 10:13am

Re: Why?
The part where it would cost millions of dollars to prove that in court.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2010 @ 11:23am

ya, suing everyone worked so well for the RIAA
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 20 Sep 2010 @ 3:57pm

Re: Blue-Ray vs “Upscaled” DVD
It’s a fact that lots of people can’t tell whether they’re watching hi-def video or not.

Oh, and “upscaled” is just a marketing term.
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nasch (profile), 20 Sep 2010 @ 4:12pm

Re: Re: Blue-Ray vs “Upscaled” DVD
Oh, and "upscaled"� is just a marketing term.

If you have references to prove that, you could go edit the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_scaler

But I have a feeling you don't.
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Bill M., 23 Sep 2010 @ 4:36pm

Re:
As somebody who works at a company that dabbles in the same area...yes. that is exactly what is happening, and it is SOP.
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