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*HOT* Tech News And Downloads, I Would Read This Thread And Post Any Good Info
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janrocks
Suspended permanently
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24. January 2007 @ 17:28 |
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Microsoft SQL forgot about Vista ..... IBM didn't
With Microsoft Vista released and Redmond pushing much publicity around their new OS, one would think interoperability with other new Microsoft applications would be tested. WRONG. Vista is unable to run Microsoft's latest version of SQL. The software company has been widely known for a "rip and replace" strategy because of the lack of backwards capability. Now they have to rely on older technology to work with newer technology. If Microsoft is serious about competing with IBM and Oracle in the database space, you would think some level of interoperability test with Vista would of been on the radar. WRONG. One would also think that Microsoft would be provide the first database application for Vista. WRONG. Not to my surprise, IBM has already released DB2 9 Express-C that is Vista capatable.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday, even the Microsoft developers now working hard to save face on Vista and SQL
http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blo...got_about_vista
... it's possible that Microsoft is out of ideas, and Apple is out of ideas from which Microsoft can borrow.
Microsoft couldn't get the promised database-centric file system to work, so it was left out of the new OS [Vista]. This sort of file system goes back to the 1970s and was used in the Pick OS and other systems. Yet Microsoft, with all its resources, can't make it work.
While Microsoft, because of its sheer size, is no more doomed than IBM ever was, it's never going to be a leader again, if the Vista saga is any indication. What we are witnessing now is nothing more than upgrades and maintenance[Bold added].
The company still makes its money from two product lines (OS licenses and Microsoft Office) and seems less than sincere when it ventures into other markets. When it does have a winner, such as the Xbox 360, it can't bring itself to stomp on the gas pedal. Despite having billions in the bank, the company is still risk-averse.
Once Vista emerges and the OS scene is reset for another two or three years, there will be an opportunity for something new to become the rage. It may finally give the slowly growing Linux a chance to capture the desktop and change the way we spend our money. Everyone would love to get off Microsoft's expensive treadmill. Opportunity is knocking. Will anyone answer?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24. January 2007 @ 17:32
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. January 2007 @ 20:27 |
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Dear all,
DVDFab products 3.0.6.5 Beta is out (01/25/2007):
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- Fix: A problem when selecting IDX/SUB subtitle for "DVD to Mobile".
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. January 2007 @ 05:38 |
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GOOD MORNING TO YE ALL....HAVE A DONUT AND COFFEE ON ME
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. January 2007 @ 06:38 |
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Thursday January 25, 2007
Dell Offering Systems With No OS
Dell is now offering complete line of systems that ship without an OS installed. Good news for all you alternative OS folks out there, you can finally can get a Dell system without having to pay for an OS you aren?t going to use.
Dell's new open-source n Series desktop solution provides customers with a DimensionTM E520, E521 or C521 desktop without an installed or included Microsoft® operating system. With the n Series desktop, customers have the flexibility to install an alternative operating system (such as a version of Linux® ), and help reduce the price of this system.
GO HERE TO SEE THE COMPUTERS
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segto...s=19&l=en&s=dhs
Dimension n Series E520
Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual CoreTechnology(2.80GHz,800FSB)
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Dimension n Series C521
AMD Athlon? 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. January 2007 @ 08:19 |
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Oh yea I feel better...
In addition, it appears that Windows Vista, the new operating system Microsoft will launch next week, is vulnerable to the attack.
Originally dubbed the "Storm worm" because one of the subject heads used by its e-mail touted Europe's recent severe weather, the Trojan's author is now spreading it using subjects such as "Love birds" and "Touched by Love," said Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure. The Trojan, meanwhile, piggybacks on the spam as an executable file with names ranging from "postcard.exe" to "Flash Postcard.exe," more changes from the original wave as the attack mutates.
Storm' Trojan Hits 1.6 Million PCs; Vista May Be Vulnerable
Jan 25,2007 by Alex
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In addition, it appears that Windows Vista, the new operating system Microsoft will launch next week, is vulnerable to the attack.
Originally dubbed the "Storm worm" because one of the subject heads used by its e-mail touted Europe's recent severe weather, the Trojan's author is now spreading it using subjects such as "Love birds" and "Touched by Love," said Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure. The Trojan, meanwhile, piggybacks on the spam as an executable file with names ranging from "postcard.exe" to "Flash Postcard.exe," more changes from the original wave as the attack mutates.
The first several spam blasts of the Trojan -- which was named "Peacomm" by Symantec -- came with current event subject heads, including ones claiming to include video of a Chinese missile attack or proof that Saddam Hussein lives, and bore attached files such as "video.exe."
"Peacomm has, not surprisingly, evolved. The attachments have new filenames, some files [dropped onto the PC] have changed, and the subject lines of the spam are also changing," noted Amado Hidalgo, a researcher with Symantec's security response group, in an entry on the team's blog.
By Symantec's reckoning, Peacomm is the most serious Internet threat in 20 months. Monday, it raised the alert level to "3" in its 1 through 5 scale; the last time the Cupertino, Calif., security software developer tagged a threat as "3" was for Sober.o in May 2005.
So far, Symantec has received 1.6 million detection reports from its sensor system. "This means Peacomm has hit 1.6 million systems in the past seven days," a company spokesman said in an e-mail. An accurate number of infected machines is not yet known.
The most recent variants of the Trojan include rootkit cloaking technologies to hide it from security software, said both F-Secure and Symantec. The latter, however, pointed out that flawed rootkit code voids some of the Trojan maker's plans. "The rootkit service can be stopped by running a simple command: net stop wincom32. All files, registry keys, and ports will appear again," said Hidalgo. A personal firewall also offers some protection from the rootkit, as it will warn you that the Windows process "services.exe" is trying to access the Internet using ports 4000 or 7871.
Peacomm's turn to rootkits brought out comparisons to Rustock, a year-old family of Trojan horses that has become a model of sorts for hackers. Rustock, as Symantec warned in December 2006, relies on rootkit technology, but adds an ability to quickly change form as another evasion tactic.
"It's similar to Rustock," acknowledges Dave Cole, director of Symantec's security response team, "but [Peacomm is] not nearly as technically sophisticated."
As with most large-scale Trojan attacks, the goal seems to be to acquire a large botnet, or collection of compromised PCs, that can be used to send traditional scam spams or for later identity mining.
Symantec's researchers said that PCs hijacked by Peacomm send "tons and tons of penny stock spam" in a typical pump 'n' dump scheme. "During our tests we saw an infected machine sending a burst of almost 1,800 emails in a five-minute period and then it just stopped," said Hidalgo. "We are speculating that the task of sending the junk e-mail is then passed on to another member of the botnet."
Windows 2000 and Windows XP are vulnerable to all the Peacomm variations, but Windows Server 2003 is not; the Trojan's creator specifically excluded that edition of Windows from the code. Symantec's Hidalgo took a guess why. "We presume the malware writers didn't have time to test it on this operating system."
Microsoft's soon-to-release-to-consumers Vista, however, does appear at risk, added Symantec Tuesday. "It appears most if not all variants could execute on Vista," the spokesman said. "The only way the Trojan would be unsuccessful is if somehow Vista is able to detect/prohibit the e-mail. This seems unlikely."
Anti-virus companies have updated their signature databases with fingerprints that identify and then delete (or quarantine) the Trojan as it arrives. Other defensive advice includes filtering traffic on UDP ports 4000 and 7871, update anti-spam products, and configure mail gateways to strip out all executable attachments.
http://www.it-networks.org/?news=220
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Senior Member
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25. January 2007 @ 10:42 |
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Your kidding me...Vista cannot be vulnerable...Bill said it would be perfect...Bill said it would change the world...Look here is a picture from the news conference...
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Senior Member
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25. January 2007 @ 10:45 |
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XP gets a new lease on life
Posted by Ed Bott @ 3:07 pm, One of the favorite topics of conspiracy-minded readers is the notion that Microsoft is about to shut down support for Windows XP, forcing hapless users to buy Windows Vista. Back in September, in Vista Mythbusters #3, I reprinted the relevant dates from Microsoft's support lifecycle and pointed out that users of XP Home edition could expect support until at least April, 2011, with XP Professional getting support through April, 2014.
In that post, I noted, "And of course there?s always the possibility that Microsoft could extend support for XP as they did for Windows 98."
And that's exactly what Microsoft did today. From the press release:
Today, Microsoft is announcing the addition of an Extended Support phase for the Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition operating systems, providing consumers with an additional phase of support.
With the addition of Extended Support, the support life cycle for Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition will include a total of five years of Mainstream Support (until April 2009) and five years of Extended Support, matching the support policy provided for Windows XP Professional.
Bottom line: If you want to stick with Windows XP, you can choose to do so for more than seven additional years, with security updates available during that entire period.
With luck, Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be out before then.
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2007 @ 02:30 |
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Norway Outlaws iTunes
Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday January 25, @09:37PM
from the run-out-of-town dept.
Media (Apple) Music
haddieman notes that while many people are getting more and more annoyed at DRM, Norway actually did something about it. The PC World article explains: "Good intentions, questionable execution. European legislators have been giving DRM considerable attention for a while, but Norway has actually gone so far as to declare that Apple's iTunes store is illegal under Norwegian law. The crux of the issue is that the Fairplay DRM that is at the heart of the iTunes/iPod universe doesn't work with anything else, meaning that if you want access to the cast iTunes library, you have to buy an iPod."
Norway Outlaws iTunes
ipod.jpgGood intentions, questionable execution. European legislators have been giving DRM considerable attention for a while, but Norway has actually gone so far as to declare that Apple's iTunes store is illegal under Norwegian law.
The crux of the issue is that the Fairplay DRM that is at the heart of the iTunes/iPod universe doesn't work with anything else, meaning that if you want access to the cast iTunes library, you have to buy an iPod. That didn't sit well with the Norwegian Consumer Council, the body that kicked the whole thing off by filing a complaint with Norway's consumer ombudsman. France and Germany have also joined in on the action. (See our earlier reports on Norway and France's ongoing debates here, here and here.)
Now, I'm not much for DRM (though I'll admit that Fairplay is comparatively liberal) and I resent theoretically having to buy an iPod in order to listen to iTunes downloads away from the computer. But as it happens millions of people don't seem to care. They have an iPod, they have iTunes, they get their music, and they're happy because the whole thing does what they want.
My use of the word "theoretically" seems to apply here. As far as I can tell, this entire case came about because of the theoretical problem of a closed system; but I wonder, how many Norwegian (or French or German) consumers were clamoring for Apple to open up iTunes?
I guess we'll find out soon enough. Apple has until October 1 to open up Fairplay to other companies, or face fines and the threat of iTunes being closed down in Norway. Since the first option is about as likely as Satan skating to work, Apple's only choice in the long run -- assuming endless legal wrangling fails -- will be to close iTunes in Norway, and possibly other European countries. I wonder how many consumers would go for that?
http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/ar...ay_outlaws.html
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2007 @ 02:44 |
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How much have you paid for your DVD player?
In the gadget era, this news will make many people happy. According to an article published at thisislondon, Asda (which is part of the American Wal-mart empire) is to offer a DVD player for only £9 (about ?14 or $18).
It is appealing to have gadgets at a so low price, but how is it possible? The answer is really simple: the product is manufactured at a factory in China, where wages and other business costs are a fraction of those in the rest of world.
In the era of global warming and pollution, however, this news will not make people so happy. In fact, as reported in the original article, the development of a so cheap stuff could create the tendency to throw away and replace a gadget very often. And what happens to all just trown away gadgets? Is there not already enough trash in the world?
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/How-much-ha...DVD-player.html
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26. January 2007 @ 03:20 |
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p2pnet: NOT for sale : )
p2pnet.net News:- p2pnet's problems have been resolved, I'm please to say : ) I'll be moving to a new host, I'll have technical back-up, and over the next few weeks the site will be re-jigged to look like something close to the rough below. As you can see, I'm keeping it near to the original design. It isn't pretty, but it's easy to navigate.
The three profiles at the top will feature women and men (and kids : ) who've made, or are making, an impact. They'll stay up for two or three days, or longer, and be replaced by new ones, as and when.
Under the three profile pix there's a bar. Readers will be able to click on individual category headings placed inside it to go to the individual sections.
And half the spaces in the columns on the left and right will be devoted to free public service advertisements.
No, there will not be ads which totally obscure what you're trying to read when you accidentally pass the mouse pointer over them, ads that float around on the page, or any other kinds of pain-in-the-ass ads, such as those 'welcome' pages you have to click to get past so you can get to where you want to go.
As things stand, all of the stories go into one large archive. But under the new layout, there'll be separate sections, each one of which will open up separate advertising possibilities. Main story headlines and teasers will first show up on the index page, but the actual posts will go into sections of their own with Open Source, Hardware, Software, Indie p2p, Paid p2p archives, and so on. The headlines will be pushed off the main page as new ones are added.
I'm still trying to decide whether or not to have forums, but even if I do, there'll still be comment posts with people adding signed or anonymous comments under individual posts. But maybe I can come up with a better way to display them.
The 'most important' story at the top will change whenever it needs to, and there'll be around 20 (10 left, 10 right) current story links under it.
Also, the newsletter comprising headlines and links, and nothing else, will re-appear.
Up until now, I've been devoting all my time to the site. But starting next month I'll also be writing news stories for payment. If things work the way I expect them to, there'll be very little, if any, reduction in the number of p2pnet posts.
Also, I plan to introduce micro-payments under which you'll be able to click an icon under each story and contribute 5 or 10 cents to the author. BUT this'll be purely voluntary. If you don't want to, you won't have to. This way, contributors will be paid for their work. I have no way of knowing how effective it'll be, but I'm convinced micro-payments will be a way for creators, including musicians, to earn money.
The idea is to attract new writers as well as to support p2pnet. But it's an experiment and we'll have to see if it works.
I also have a few other plans such as classified ads, product reviews, and a p2pnet Speakers' Corner where readers will be able to post videos of themselves commenting on whatever they want to comment on : )
These changes, and others, I've had in mind for at least two years but haven't been able to implement.
Should be interesting. heh
For sale
On the 'for sale' effort, it pulled some weird and wonderful ideas and I was amazed I was expected to take some of them seriously : ) But of the practicable ones, and there were quite a few, I was offered straight buy-outs with no further input from me, buys where I'd work under someone's supervision, and deals where p2pnet and I would be rolled into another site with no $ involved.
Under the arrangement I decided on, I'll be working with a guy who has sites of his own and the technical know-how and people to back them up. This means I'll be able to concentrate on content, and that's fine with me. My new partner is presently up to his eye-balls in work of his own and doesn't want to be named just yet. But there's good reason and I'll let you know who he is in the fairly near future. For now, it's enough to say he's also a musician.
So thanks to everyone for their good wishes, support under comments and by email, and suggestions. It was pretty humbling, although it's not an experience I'd care to go through again : )
Cheers! And thanks. And all the best ....
Jon
http://p2pnet.net/story/11104?PHPSESSID=...c745ec9e440d86a
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2007 @ 03:33 |
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have a Caffeinated Doughnut and coffee on me.........
Scientist Develops Caffeinated Doughnuts
Email this Story
Jan 26, 7:40 AM (ET)
DURHAM. N.C. (AP) - That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what Doctor Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste of caffeine. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee.
While the product is not on the market yet, Bohannon has approached some heavyweight companies, including Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks about carrying it.
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26. January 2007 @ 03:45 |
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Hollywood threatens Canada
p2pnet.net News:- Using Rupert Murdoch's Twentieth Century Fox as the front, Hollywood is threatening Canada over the alleged bootlegging of movies in Canadian cinemas.
Canadians "pirate" as many as as 50% of movies which show up online, "prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles," says the studio which, according to the CanWest News Service, claims most of the camcording goes on in Montreal cinemas, encouraged by, " bilingual releases and lax copyright laws".
"They are using Canada because they can have the movie out on the street in the Philippines and China before it even releases there," the story has the Cineplex Entertainment theatre chain's Ellis Jacob saying.
Bruce Snyder, president of Fox's domestic distribution, told Jacob about the alleged activities and said if Canada doesn't do something to curb its growing piracy problem, "Hollywood will".
The entertainment cartels have been lobbying frantically trying to get Canaidan copyright laws changed so they can go after Canadians in the same way they do Americans and people on other parts of the world.
Hollywood's MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) routinely uses national police forces to go after, on its behalf, anyone it believes is a "pirate".
It, and its brother music organization the RIAA, aka the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), want to be able to do the same in Canada and Voilà! - "The movie industry has complained that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the internal policies of police forces including the RCMP, make it extremely difficult for them to crack down on movie piracy," says CanWest, going on:
"Under the act, anyone caught copying a movie without the studio's consent can face criminal charges and jailed or fined up to $25,000. Copyright holders can also take civil action against someone who has infringed on their property. owever, Jacob said convicting someone is difficult."
Canadian exhibitors, "are caught in a bind because Canadian laws do not allow for the arrest or prosecution of moviegoers with camcorders," says Reuters.
"You have to prove that the person was camcording and using it to generate revenue. It is virtually impossible to do that," he said." Unless you can assign blame to the person recording in your theatre, your law doesn't have any teeth."
The Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association acts for Hollywood in Canada and, "We're working in a legislative and enforcement vacuum, and certainly a prosecution vacuum at every level in this country," says its boss, boss Douglas Frith, according to the story, which goes on:
"In addition to working for stronger laws, the CMPDA has trained cinema employees to spot illegal camcorders," but, "local police are not responding to calls from cinema operators when pirate camera operators are spotted and detained."
Reuters also quotes Frith as declaring, "We're doing the surveillance. We have them (camcorder operators) in our crosshairs. But we require a police force to enforce the law, which is why we are pressing so hard to get camcording made a criminal offense."
The entertainment cartels have used their massive spin machines to elevate copyright infringement, a commercial matter, to the level of major crime in the US, and they're desperately striving to achieve the same thing in Canada.
In the US in late 2005, 19-year-old Curtis Salisbury was looking at up to 17 years in jail and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly camcording a movie.
Stay tuned.
Slashdot Slashdot it!
Also See:
CanWest News Service - Studio threatens to delay films in Canada, January 24, 2007
Reuters - Hollywood studio vexed by Canadian bootleggers, January 24, 2007
17 years in jail - Star Wars 'Sith' p2p uploader, January 26, 2006
http://p2pnet.net/story/11140?PHPSESSID=...8ad580887424d11
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2007 @ 04:17 |
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AACS confirms AACS hacked
p2pnet.net News:- DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control comes in many guises. But whatever it's called, it makes a mockery out of the term 'fair use' aiming, as it does, to stop people from freely using DVDs they bought and paid good money for.
Bottom line, however, DRM is a farce. Anything which can be seen or heard can, and will be, copied by one digital or analog means or another.
Now, add to that the thought that anything which can be encrypted can be decrypted, the relevance being "title keys" used to decrypt high-definition DVDs supposedly protected by the Access Content System (AACS) have indeed been hacked, confirm AACS Licensing Authority founders IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Disney and Warner Bros.
"Both the title keys and a number of decrypted films have been posted on peer-to-peer Web sites for downloading and copying, a spokesman for the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority said," according to Reuters.
"The large size of the files and the high cost of writable hi-def discs make large-scale copying of high-definition DVDs impractical, but the attacks on the new format echo the early days of illegal trafficking in music files, AACS spokesman Michael Ayers said on Thursday."
He's talking about the days when Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon, originally decoded the so-called DVD content-scrambling system, turning DeCSS loose.
Move over Jon and enter Muslix64, the creator of BackupHDDVD which has the Hollywood moguls in a similar flap, and the mainstream media, reporting by press release, screaming lamely.
"A large-scale failure of AACS could be a threat to the $24 billion DVD industry, which has started to cool and was counting on next-generation DVD sales to reinvigorate it," says Reuters, quoting AACS spokesman Michael Ayers as saying, "The security breach affects both of the high-definition DVD formats - Sony Corp's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD."
Here's what Slyck has to say on the subject, together with a Q&A with Muslix64.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Interview with muslix64, Developer of BackupHDDVD
By Tom Mennecke - Slyck
The next generation of optical disc technology holds the promise to change the way we interact with and store digital media. Perhaps the most exciting change is the arrival of High Definition (HD) video, with its glorious 1920x1080 pixel resolution. It?s a quantum leap forward in terms of watching digital content, as its vast resolution reveals a quality never seen before in such fine detail.
Because of the rapid escalation of digital file-sharing ? especially of video files ? Hollywood has been working around the clock to protect HD content. This is especially relevant for one of its primary delivery mechanisms ? HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. These next generation discs, with capacities of 30 gigabytes and 50 gigabytes respectively, have their content protected with an array of DRM (Digital Rights Management.) Both are protected with a scheme called AACS, or Advanced Access Content System. This DRM is a great leap forward compared to the weak CSS, or Content Scrambling System, that currently ?protects? DVDs. Thanks to Fox, Blu-ray has an additional layer of protection, called BD+, however most discs have yet to support this protection.
Although Hollywood has constructed enough DRM architecture to rival the Pyramid of Giza, it has long been suspected that it would be only a matter of time before HD DVD and Blu-ray content protection were compromised. Convinced the golden DRM egg had been laid, it seemed that nothing could penetrate the great AACS wall. And to this day, that great wall still stands.
But why crash through the main gates of Constantinople when you can just pick the lock of a long forgotten rear entrance?
On December 26, 2006, a member of the Doom9.com forums named muslix64 introduced himself as circumventing the content protection ? not the copy protection ? of HD DVD. Additionally, he made available an open source program named BackupHDDDVD. At the time, this program was a command line program that bypassed the content protection ? providing the individual successfully obtained the title and volume keys associated with the HD DVD. Once the individual has the keys, the AACS protection can be sidestepped, and the HD movie content can be extracted. According to muslix64, it took all of eight days to successfully circumvent HD DVD content protection.
Much of the more difficult work, such as extracting the keys, has been alleviated as the once encrypted information has proliferated online. To understand where this stunning turn of events is heading, Slyck.com spoke with muslix64, who agreed to a PM (private message) interview.
Mennecke: The mainstream media tends to have many labels for you, i.e. hacker, cracker, pirate, etc., in response to your efforts. What would you call yourself and what would you label your efforts?
Muslix64: I'm just an upset customer. My efforts can be called "fair use enforcement"!
Mennecke: What motivated you to help circumvent the content protection scheme associated with HD DVD and Blu-ray?
Muslix64: With the HD-DVD, I wasn't able to play my movie on my non-HDCP HD monitor. Not being able to play a movie that I have paid for, because some executive in Hollywood decided I cannot, made me mad...
After the HD-DVD crack, I realized that things where "unbalanced" by having just one format cracked, so I did Blu-ray too.
Mennecke: Explain how decrypting the device and volume keys are critical to your success. Could you explain the difference between the two?
Muslix64: The device keys, are the keys associated to the player. The volume key, is the key associated to the movie.
I don't care about device keys. I do care about volume keys, because by using volume keys instead of devices keys, I totally bypass the revocation system. There is no "volume key revocation". There is content revocation, but I really doubt they will ever use it. If you use device keys, they can revoke them. Having the volume key means that you can decrypt title's keys (or CPS Unit key in the case of Blu-ray) and then you can decrypt the media file without problem.
I was shocked to realize the volume key was not protected in memory!
Mennecke: Explain how a movie studio could prevent the general public from taking advantage of pirated HD movies, such as ones currently available via Usenet and BitTorrent. For example, if an individual were to download "Serenity", and play it successfully on his or her Power DVD player - and never updated the software - would it be immune from any Hollywood counterattack?
Muslix64: Yes, immune. If the movie is decrypted there is nothing you can do! Or you can use open-source player, like VideoLan, if a player like PowerDVD become more restrictive about playing decrypted movies.
Mennecke: There appears to be some confusion to the extent and specifics of your success. Explain what content protection has been compromised, and what content protection is still intact?
Muslix64: There is no easy answer but, IMHO, AACS is totally busted. The only thing I can see for now to prevent the attack I have described is to put different keys on every disc! It will cost a fortune for the manufacturing, so I'm not sure they will go that way...
People say I have not broken AACS, but players. But players are part of this system! And a system is only as strong as his weakest link. Even if players become more secure, key extraction will always be possible.
I know many people of the industry try to cover up this breach, by saying I have only poked a tiny hole in AACS, but it is more serious than that. Only the future will tell.
The AACS security layer is almost the same for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so they are both busted for good.
The only extra security layer is for the Blu-ray format, and it's called BD+. BD+ is not there yet, and I don't know when it will be. May be my "exploits" will speed up the adoption of BD+, we will see...
Mennecke: You've recently helped defeat Blu-ray's content protection as well. What were the similarities/differences in defeating this copy protection scheme?
Muslix64: Almost the same. I use the same known-plaintext attack for both formats. But media format and encryption are slightly different. Because I already had experience with the HD-DVD, it was really easy for Blu-ray.
Mennecke: What are your ultimate goals? Do you feel that most - if not all - of the content protect will be ultimately defeated?
Muslix64: If you can play it, you can decrypt it! There is nothing you can do about it. The only thing they can try is to slow people down.
Mennecke: To what extent do you feel you can bring your efforts to the mainstream? Do you believe Hollywood's content protect will rendered so impotent that HDDVD Backup (or a similar device) will be utilized to the same extent as DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink?
Muslix64: Probably. There are multiple scenarios here. You can write a fully automated decrypter with stolen player keys, but they will revoke the keys.
Anyways, even if they do key revocation, the revocation process will be very slow. It would take at least one month (or more) between revoking the player and new version of movies with the revocation in stores.
The reaction time of the community will be way faster than the reaction time of the industry.
Mennecke: Explain the differences between DeCSS and your efforts.
Muslix64: I really respect the work of DVD Jon and his friends (he was not alone!) They do more than me. They had to reverse a cipher! I didn't have to reverse anything. So technically speaking, it was easier to bypass AACS than CSS.
Mennecke: To what extent is your work a community effort? Do you feel that without the community's input, we would be having this conversation today?
Muslix64: I was pretty much alone to do the HD-DVD exploit. But I receive a lot of help with the Blu-ray, thanks Janvitos!
Muslix64: My 2 programs are only "proof of concept" software. Right now, the community's contribution is vital. They will bring this software to higher level. I just tell people it was possible and I made the demonstration.
Mennecke: What PC based DVD players are currently compatible with defeated HD movies?
Muslix64: I don't want to give specific names but I can tell you they are all vulnerable [to a] different extent.
Mennecke: Let's look into the crystal ball. When would you say people will be able to decrypt, burn, and play HD movies (whether HD DVD or Blu-ray) on their stand alone player?
Muslix64: I think they are already doing it right now! I have seen post of people claiming they did that on both format...But I cannot confirm it.
Mennecke: Do you see Microsoft Vista's implementation of HDCP being an obstacle to playing compromised HD movies in high definition?
Muslix64: No. To my understanding, this limitation is enforced in the player! So if you use an open-source player, like VideoLan, there is no problem. Also, a decrypted movie [doesn?t] have this limitation if you have disabled the security flags.
Muslix64: The limitation with Vista seems more on the process and memory protection. But I cannot comment on that, I don't know Vista.
Mennecke: Do you see AACS encryption being defeated in the near future?
Muslix64: If you?re talking about AES itself (the crypto algorithm), I don't think it will be cracked anytime soon, but we never know. May be someone will find another hole, or another way to attack AACS. You cannot attack the crypto itself, you have to attack the protocol or the procedure. When will we find another way around AACS? No idea...
Mennecke: If studios begin revoking encryption keys, do you believe this will pose a significant threat to your progress or overall goals?
Muslix64: Players will become more and more secure. It will slow me down, but it won't prevent key extraction in the long term.
Mennecke: Does the defeat of HD DVD automatically mean a victory for Blu-ray in the marketplace, or will Blu-ray be just as vulnerable to the community's efforts?
Muslix64: The less secure the format, the more people will buy. I know a lot of people will disagree with that, but that's my opinion. Right now, both format are equally vulnerable. We have to wait the introduction of BD+ to see if it is really that secure...
In the long run, Blu-ray seems more secure (because of BD+) and now is more expensive. So HD-DVD wins!
Mennecke: Describe a potential Hollywood counterattack, and how the community would repulse such an offensive?
Muslix64: Making the keys unique per disc will be the perfect counterattack. So we have to start another attack by stealing player?s key and doing the whole AACS decryption. Then the community will win because they have a faster response time to the revocation than the industry.
Mennecke: Who do you feel most benefits from your work, and who stands to lose the most?
Muslix64: The consumers will benefit. I hope it will enforce fair use, not piracy. Of course pirates will use this technique, and they already did...
Studios will lose more money with mass counterfeiting than file or key exchange on the net.
Mennecke: Considering the legal problems Jon Lech Johansen endured, are you at all concerned about the repercussions of your work?
Muslix64: I'm really concern about that. So I will stay put for a while, and watch the show. When the first BD+ movie [comes] out, I will wake up!
Mennecke: Is there anything you would like to add?
Muslix64: I don't think I'm the first who did it. They are probably a lot of people who did that before me, but they keep it secret.
I was disappointed to realize, that BD+ (the other security layer of Blu-ray) was not there yet. It would have been a great challenge! AACS was not a challenge at all...
I'm not the smart guy around; they are just careless about security.
[Slyck note: One of the more important lessons muslix64 probably best exemplifies is the enormous delayed reaction of the entertainment industry. Napster was released in 1999, and to this day the music industry continues to struggle against free file-sharing. There are indications now that DRM is being considered for obsolescence. With muslix64's work, the amount of work required to keep up with the community oriented efforts may simply be impossible to maintain.]
Slashdot Slashdot it!
Also See:
Reuters - AACS confirms hacks on high-definition DVD players, January 25, 2007
enter Muslix64 - BackupHDDVD v1.00 now online, January 3, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/11141?PHPSESSID=...4b6a36e6081d313
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26. January 2007 @ 04:47 |
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DRIVER MAX..........DriverMax is a new program which allows you to easily reinstall all your Windows drivers.
No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Simply export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place! Most of the situations when Windows is running slower are caused by faulty driver installations. Windows stores all versions of older drivers just in case you want to go back; sometimes it messes up older versions with more recent ones. The Export Wizard will only export the drivers you select by copying the needed files to a folder or a compressed ZIP file. After reinstalling Windows all drivers will be back in place in less than 5 minutes - sparing you of searching, inserting disc after disk and losing precious time. The Import Drivers wizard allows you to install all the drivers that you exported earlier. The entire operation might take up to 5-10 minutes. Just one single computer restart will be required after all drivers are reinstalled! DriverMax is able to display a complete report of all drivers (versions, release dates) installed on your system. This feature can also be very useful when you want to analyze the differences between the drivers installed on different machines.....(free).....GO THERE!
http://www.innovative-sol.com/
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26. January 2007 @ 04:50 |
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XNVIEW..........Free graphic and photo viewer and converter, really simple to use ! Supports more than 400 graphics formats ! It's free, so do not hesitate! XnView (1.82/1.70) exists for Windows, MacOS X, Linux x86, Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, Irix mips, HP-UX, AIX.....(free).....GO THERE!
http://www.xnview.com/
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26. January 2007 @ 04:58 |
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This Web site can name that tune
Search site Midomi lets users sing, hum or whistle to find song titles from a catalog of more than 2 million tracks.
By Elinor Mills
Do you ever find yourself humming a song whose title, to your frustration, you don't know or can't remember? New search Web site Midomi is designed to actually identify that song for you in as little as 10 seconds.
go here to hum or whistle
http://www.midomi.com/
Launching in beta mode on Friday, Midomi allows people to search for a song by singing, humming or whistling a bit of the tune. The site then offers search results that include commercially recorded tracks or versions of the song recorded by others who have used the site. The technology also lets people listen to the exact section of each of the results that matched their voice sample.
People also can type in a song title or artist to get results. The system recognizes misspelled words.
Melodis, the company behind the site, has licensed 2 million digital tracks that can be purchased and has accumulated about 12,000 more from users. Users, who range from aspiring American Idol contestants to professionals, can create profiles and rate one other's performances on the ad-supported site.
The underlying speech- and sound-recognition technology, dubbed Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System, or MARS, differs from similar technologies in that it looks at a variety of factors for recognizing samples, including pitch, tempo variation, speech content and location of pauses, said Chief Executive Keyvan Mohajer, who has a Ph.D. in sound- and speech-recognition from Stanford University.
Like search giant Google, Melodis was started in a dorm room in Stanford--only the idea for Melodis came a bit later: 2004.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6153657....-0-20&subj=news
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26. January 2007 @ 05:31 |
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Holland joins anti-Apple DRM war
Humph!
p2pnet.net News:- Holland has joined other European and Scandinavian countries in their fight to force a giant America corporation into treating its customers fairly.
German and French consumer groups are following Norway in battle against Apple's unfair Fairplay DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control system.
Now Dutch consumer protection agency Consumentenbond is demanding an investigation into what it's calling "illegal practices" by Apple's iTunes, says The Canadian Press.
"What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod," it has Consumentenbond spokesman Ewald van Kouwen saying.
In typical PR-spinbabble, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr hoped, "European governments will encourage a competitive environment that lets innovation thrive," says CP, adding:
"Simmering European discontent with Apple's rules first boiled over in June 2006, when consumer agencies in Norway, Denmark and Sweden claimed that Apple's practices violated contract and copyright laws. French consumer lobby UFC-Que Choisir and its German counterpart Ferbraucherzentralen joined the effort late last year, along with Finland's Kuluttajavirasto.
"In August, France passed a law that giving regulators power to force Apple to license its software or hardware to rivals so they can make compatible music players and stores. Early drafts of the law would have ordered the outright removal of copy-protection software, which prevents song files from playing on devices using rival copy-protection systems. Apple complained the law was tantamount to 'state-sponsored piracy.' But in its final form it has not led to any significant change in Apple's practices in France."
Consumentenbond also plans to oppose Microsoft's use of Plays[not]ForSure DRM on Zune, "or Sony or any company that does so," adds the story.
Slashdot Slashdot it!
Also See:
Apple's unfair Fairplay - Apple Fairplay DRM 'illegal', January 25, 2007
The Canadian Press - Holland joins rebellion against Apple's rules restricting iTunes music to iPods, January 26, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/11143?PHPSESSID=...eb8ee65ba170e43
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26. January 2007 @ 05:33 |
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Interview with The Pirate Bay,
p2pnet.net News Special:- Gottfrid 'Anakata' and Peter 'Brokep' from the Pirate Bay took part in Computer Sweden's Hot Seat this week when readers asked them about their income, copyright infringement, Sealand and more.
Torrentfreak translated the interview for TPB fans outside of Sweden.
Anton asks: How many percent of those who use TPB to download copyrighted material do you think believe they have the moral right to do so?
Gottfrid: We don?t do any polls of the morals of our users, so it?s hard to say.
Peter: It?s not very interesting either. It is all about spread what you want to spread, and then it?s up to each and everyone to have their own moral values.
Gottfrid: It would only come out wrong if we tried to shove any particular set of moral down the throats of our users.
Christian S asks: How much money do the Pirate Bay make per month from ads, and what happens to that money?
Peter: I don?t know exactly how much money we get. A separate company runs all the ad sales for us. It?s enough for hardware and bandwidth. We invest quite a bit in new hardware so there?s not much left.
Gottfrid tpb anakataGottfrid: We must have a buffer to be able to handle when people steal our servers and stuff like that [laugh]. I would wish we got rich off of it, but we don?t.
Peter: What we would like to do is o hire someone full-time. But as things are now, this is still a hobby project. There are of course pros and cons to this.
Economicon asks: How much profit did the Pirate Bay make in 2006?
Peter: That is a good question. I have no idea. I think we made a lot of loss.
Gottfrid: Something like that.
CS asks: Why won?t you answer questions about your profits?
Peter: It feels like a cheap way to make us look like hipocrits. We would rather have people focusing on the issues of copyright.
Gottfrid: We are not involved in the financing part ourselves. We simply don?t have the time, the energy or the market know-how ourselves, instead we want to be able to focus on the technical stuff. In the childhood of the Pirate Bay, just before we got ourselves out of the stage where we were just a bunch of old second-hand computer gear in a closet, and needed more money than we could put in ourselves or get through donations, I was the one handling the ads. It was very stressful and didn?t work very well, with cynical ad buyers and low incomes as a result. It was really very relieving to be able to hand this part over to professionals.
CS asks: How much does your most expensive ad-package cost?
Peter: I have no idea. It?s very different depending on who and what it is. There are guys that works with this stuff full-time.
CS asks: Who are running your finances?
Peter: An external company called Random Media who are based on the British Virgin Islands. We do not run that company.
CS asks: Who is behind that company?
Peter: I don?t think we want to go there. We are not responsible for their business.
CS asks: There have been earlier claims that you had ad incomes exceeding a million crowns a week only in Sweden during 2006. Is that figure correct, exaggerated or an understatement?
Peter: The person who spilled this figure was probably fired afterwards. It was Eastpoint, an ad company selling for the Pirate Bay.
Gottfrid: He had, of course, an interest to make Eastpoint look like a company that is great at selling ads. There is a certain self interest in taking figures out of thin air.
CS asks: So that is an incorrect figure?
Gottfrid: I would the figure was correct, but it?s not.
CS asks: Many seems to sympathize with you as anti-copyright fighters. Do you think that the public opinion would change if people realized that you actually made money on what you are doing?
Peter: If it was in fact true that there were huge money involved we would have hired people and made bigger things, and we haven?t. I don?t think people are complaining on Amnesty for making money either. I don?t want to compare us to them, but the resemblance is striking.
Gottfrid: It is really completely irrelevant to the debate how awful we are as individuals. Even if my basement at home were full of kidnapped children it wouldn?t make our arguments less valid.
Christian S asks: How will you finance your court expenses with lawyers and so on if there is a trial?
Gottfrid: The state will pay our lawyers. It will be a public defender, just like in any other case.
Peter: We?re not in the US.
Mr. Groovah asks: While I am deeply respectful to how you propagate against the absurd laws that runs our all too controlled society, I wonder why you want to make the scene available to everyone? I remember the golden years with BBSes when file sharing was done by a dedicated minority with a vast interest in the scene. The losses for the developers were minimal and everyone was happy.
Peter: I was also part of the BBS movement, but personally I see it as hypocritical. Why should some but allowed to copy and others not?
Gottfrid: I agree, I also have a background in the BBS movement. It is also worth pointing out that before file sharing were so widely spread, there were hardly any debate heard about copyright and piracy. Pirate Bay, as a site, has no political aims, but one of my personal goals is that all of this will create a debate on those questions.
Andreas Ek asks: Are you as much against copy protection as you pro piracy? I believe the media businesses have themselves to blame since they haven?t done enough to stop piracy, but shouldn?t they be allowed to stop copying at all?
Peter: Absolutely not. DRM is really scary and absolutely the wrong path. You have to be free to use what you have bought. For me it is very strange to buy something that is still owned by someone else.
Gottfrid: Legal service with good quality beats file sharing any day. One can never be sure that the quality is good and it might be complicated. The legal services that do exist, for example iTunes, have become very popular despite their flaws. Financing through ads is, of course, another alternative.
Christian S asks: You had planned to launch a new, highly anticipated, site for release material only, called ?The Black Pearl?. Are those plans completely canceled?
Peter: I don?t know if they are canceled. It?s something we would like to to do, but haven?t had time for. It?s just the sort of jobs we don?t have time for.
Gottfrid: There are other things that are more important, our television department, for example.
Peter: There is some code, but nothing is set. There is no active work put down on it.
Anton asks: Is it only the Pirate Bay?s servers that is still in police custody, or are other companies still waiting to get their servers back?
Gottfrid: There is a lot of stuff still in police custody. They did a total of 180 seizes of equipment, and only 40 or 50 have been canceled. Everything isn?t servers, there are also other things there. A lot of papers and memory cards and so on.
CS asks: How did the customers of PRQ react on the raid?
Gottfrid: I haven?t received any complaints at all from our customers. A couple have moved, but it has never been anything personal, only business.
Anton asks: You will probably not be able to buy the ?country? Sealand. What will you do with all the money you have received in donations? Will you keep them now?
Peter: No. We will buy an island with them if we can?t buy Sealand.
Gottfrid: There are almost always islands for sale on various places in the world. I guess we?ll have to announce our independence on one of those instead. But we?ll have to deal with that after the budget is done.
Peter: The idea is that when we?re done talking to Sealand, and then I would like to point out that we are still negotiating, is that we decide on what we want to buy. Then we will get money for that island specifically.
CS asks: Wasn?t the Sealand deal more of a fun thing rather than a serious project?
Peter: It was a fun project from the start, but there are serious thoughts behind it. It will be another signal to the authorities about the absurdities of what they are doing.
CS asks: So it?s not just a PR coup to get a lot of money?
Peter: No. Of course, there is PR behind it - we?ve received a lot of attention. But this is something we think is funy and very interesting. The money will go to buying an island.
Anton asks: What operative system is the Pirate Bay running? Linux or a pirate Windows version?
Gottfrid: Slackware Linux, and we?re running Solaris on one of the computers.
Anton asks: What party would you have voted on if the Pirate Party didn?t exist?
Peter: To the best of my knowledge, nobody on the Pirate Bay voted for the Pirate Party. I am a Finnish citizen and didn?t vote at all.
Gottfrid: I will keep it to myself. It was one of the smaller parties, but not the Pirate Party and not the Swedish Democrats.
XXander asks: What will you have in your country?
Peter: First and foremost we want a place to be [laugh]. Secondly we?ll see what we?ll have their. We will try to involve others than ourselves.
Gottfrid: There have been discussions on the forum about running various forms of activities there.
Tommy Sköld asks: How do you think software companies should make their money? By forcing ads on the users, like the Pirate Bay does?
Peter: I don?t believe it?s our job to provide solutions for their problems. We?re not economists or marketers.
Gottfrid: I worked as a software developer before the Pirate Bay started. Back then we made money on adaption, consulting and installation, instead of on the software itself.
Per Erik asks: There are many attempts to spread trojans and viruses via the Pirate Bay. What are your routines against this?
Peter: We have a number of moderators that will check on complaints. We will include a new system to vote off things that should be taken off because the description is incorrect. It is important to point out that we don?t delete controversial stuff, only stuff that is described incorrectly. If someone says, ?This is a virus?, it stays on the site.
Gottfrid: We have some spam filters as well, to get rid of comment spam. But that?s more like hygiene than anything else.
Per Erik asks: What responsibility do the Pirate Bay believe to have in fighting viruses?
Gottfrid: Our users have to do their own thinking. We are doing what we can, but the Pirate Bay is only the medium.
Script Girl asks: Can?t you quit your anti-copyright bullshit and just admit you?re really only in it for the money?
Peter: We can?t, because it?s not true.
Gottfrid: it would be a very bad project to be in it to make money, concidering how great the risks are. The Pirate Bay was running on a zero budget for a long time.
Peter: We also have our background in the Bureau of Piracy originally. There were ideology there. If we didn?t believe in this, we wouldn?t have done it.
Jejeetegg asks: Do you plan to start with encrypted torrents?
Gottfrid: It?s the question of a new protocol and nothing that can be done with BitTorrent today. To do this, one have to re-write the protocol from scratch to not only protect the data but also the sender. Even if you encrypt the transmission, it has to be decrypted and nothing stops the anti-piracy bureau from doing that . Therefor, anonymizing technologies are needed.
Totte Alm asks: The Pirate bay is defending file sharing with the argument that artists makes their money on live performances, and actors on ticket sales, and that home users and poor students never would buy Photoshop anyway. But, what is forgotten is that file sharing in reality strikes against the small developer.
An example: A small company have pu down a lot of time and borrowed money to develop a program that resembles Photoshop. It can?t do everything that Photoshop can do, but the price is low, say 400 to 700 SEK ($57-100). The market exists - everyone thinks that Photoshop is too expensive.
The problem for the user is: why pay 70 bucks when you can have Photoshop for free via the Pirate Bay, and Photoshop is much better?
As you can see, piracy strikes against the small developers, not the big ones. The small die and the big gets bigger. Have you ever concidered that you help big business by evaporating their competition?
Gottfrid: Again, The Pirate Bay as a unit has no opinions in any question. My personal opinion is that you?ll have to find other ways to make money than selling licenses. I have this background myself, so I am aware of the problems. One have to find ways around them instead of calling for more police and harder controlling methods.
Peter: Perhaps that market model doesn?t work anymore? One have to look at other alternatives.
LinZorzor3r asks: You became famous for your answers to media company lawyers when they sent complaints on what is distributed on the Pirate Bay. But since the raid this spring there has not been one new letter on the site. What happened? Have you lost your attitude?
Gottfrid: There hasn?t been anything new that is funny enough to answer. I feel there has to be something new to make it worth the effort.
CS asks: So there?s no other reason? Are you scared?
Gottfrid: Hardly. Very few are stupid stupid enough to send such mails to the Pirate Bay. They know what will happen when we reply.
Gottfrid: One example of a little more unusual threat was when I had a snail mail from someone complaining that a torrent had a collection of fonts that their clients owned. He claimed the fonts were copyright protected. We sent a snail mail in reply, using all the fonts he had complained about.
Lisa asks: Why is the pirate world so masculine?
Peter: It?s really sad that this is how it is portraited, but it?s not so. Just like in media in general, women aren?t as visible as men. There are very many women using the Pirate Bay and there are very many women who are members of the Bureau of Piracy. It?s only sad that they aren?t promoted enough.
Gottfrid: And of course, the computer world in general is quite masculine. The modern piracy movement comes from the computer world, and so this problem has followed.
LinZorzor3r asks: If I have understood everything correctly you never take off anything that has been distributed on the Pirate Bay, instead you point to the responsibility of the users and the decisions of authorities. Is there any line beyond which you could not accept yourselves? How would it feel, for example, to indirectly add to the spread of child pornography, even if you had the chance to stop it?
Gottfrid: If someone was stupid enough to spread child porn through the Pirate Bay that would actually be a good thing. Then everyone could check who is spreading it.
Peter: We do not censor anything. Again, it is the responsibility of the user.
Torrentfreak - The Netherlands
http://p2pnet.net/story/11144?PHPSESSID=...c4c6eaf581cb96c
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26. January 2007 @ 05:54 |
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AACS hack blamed on bad player implementation
1/26/2007 9:23:30 AM, by Ken Fisher
A month after the first signs appeared online that AACS?the content protection scheme shared by HD DVD and Blu-ray?had been circumvented, the AACS Licensing Authority has verified the hack. According to a statement from the AACS LA, AACS has not been seriously compromised. Instead, the statement said, the attack is "limited to the compromise of specific implementations" and "indicate[s] an attack on one or more players sold by AACS licensees."
The statement was firm in expressing the viewpoint that this attack is not a wholesale attack on AACS, nor does it represent a serious threat to AACS. "Instead," the statement reads, "it illustrates the need for all AACS licensees to follow the Compliance and Robustness Rules set forth in the AACS license agreements to help ensure that product implementations are not compromised."
What, AACS worry?
For its part, the backers of AACS remain bullish on the strength of the AACS protection scheme. In their view, it has not been compromised. At worst, specific players were compromised that were not designed to follow the AACS Compliance and Robustness Rules, which suggests that there would be no "hack" in play were it not for these oversights.
This is an curious accusation because, according to the AACS documentation reviewed by Ars Technica, the AACS specification does not, in fact, account for this attack vector. Furthermore, the AACS LA has repeatedly not answered my questions relating to this and other matters, now going back more than 6 months. (What can I say? I'm tenacious.)
In a previous report we explained how the current attacks against AACS are known to work, and it did appear that the weakest spot in the encryption system had been found. The source of the breach originally appeared to be a software HD DVD player running on the Windows platform (PowerDVD/WinDVD). Combing through memory dumps, Muslix64?the man who started it all?noted several recurring strings and eventually discovered that the software player had been keeping the all important volume keys in memory, unencrypted. While the AACS LA suggests that this is a design flaw, we do not believe that it is.
Given this hack, can the AACS LA truly stop it? According to the organization, "AACS LA employs both technical and legal measures to deal with attacks such as this one, and AACS LA is using all appropriate remedies at its disposal to address the attack."
We believe the AACS LA may be able to stop this particular hack. While little is truly known about how effective the key revocation system in AACS is, in theory it should be possible for the AACS LA to identify the players responsible for the breach and prevent later pressings of discs from playing back on those players until they are updated. As such, if the hole can be patched in the players, the leak of volume keys could be limited to essentially what is already on the market. That is, until another hole is found.
As to whether or not this weakness in AACS is native or is the result of poorly implemented playback design, the jury is still out.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070126-8710.html
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26. January 2007 @ 06:20 |
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my take on this...if the nuts at the nut house movie studios use a scratch resistance coating on the dvd's as thay put on eye glasses we would not need back ups...
i know it does work..a friend who makes glasses coated 5 dvd's for me..and i had no problem playing the dvd's and that was 5-years ago..
So WHAT if you copy your HD-DVD?
p2pnet.net news view:- I was just reading a short piece over at eWeek saying the AACS folks are aware of the hack to copy content on HD-DVD's.
What this basically means is that folks who were hoping to be able to back up their HD-DVD content will be unable to in the future. This is what I don't like about the greedy industry: they're way too controlling!
In this era of digital content storage, there should be nothing wrong with taking something you bought and backing up the contents. OK, it's a fact of life there will be people that take that content and distribute it, but there's no way around that. Unless of course the industry actually listened to what the consumer wants and allows high speed high quality downloads of their favorite videos!
Should we all never back up any kind of digital data ever again because the greedy industry says if we copy data, regardless of the reason, that we're a determined thief?
This madness must stop now! Allow us to do what we wish with content we purchase, so long as we aren't making a proffit, than leave us alone already! If we want to back up purchased content just as we would computer files, in order to preserve the contents, that should be our decision, not the greedy industries!
I'd love to know the **AA's answer to the question should consumers be allowed to back up content which they have paid for? I'm getting very tired of the industry telling us it's a crime to copy data regardless of intent, including backup of the data you payed for!
So what if data can be copied from an HD-DVD or CD or DVD? Let it be copied and allow consumers to back up data so they'll have it should they lose the original DVD/CD or whatever!
Monty Icenogle - p2pnet
Slashdot Slashdot it!
Also See:
hack to copy content - AACS confirms AACS hacked, January 26, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/11145?PHPSESSID=...fb8f9c50945d63d
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Senior Member
2 product reviews
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26. January 2007 @ 07:53 |
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This is just my opinion but I think muslix64 should team up with SlySoft. It won't be as easy as CSS decryption, due to the know-how still being in its infancy, but as soon as SlySoft finds a way to get AnyDVD decrypting AACS then it will be a happy day for all.
The BD+ thing could spoil the party but it might not depending on how secure it really is as opposed to how secure it is on paper.
Peace
"The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins." - Gizmodo
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. January 2007 @ 08:44 |
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p2pnet movies file share top ten
For, below are the current top ten movie and TV downloads.
We hope soon to also bring you the most popular seasons and episodes.
Movies File Share Top Ten: BitTorrent, World-wide
Current simultaneous leechers as of January 27, 2007
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> Little Man (+ #6) 30,226
02 >>> Apocalypto (new) 17,358
03 >>> Snakes on a Plane (new) 12,700
04 >>> Rocky Balboa (new) 12,086
05 >>> Borat ... (new) 11,158
06 >>> Saw III (new) 11,054
07 >>> The Pursuit of Happyness (+ #10) 10,822
08 >>> Blood Diamond (new) 10,704
09 >>> Children of Men (new) 8,988
10 >>> Casino Royale (- #5) 8,824
Movies File Share TV Top Ten TV
World-wide, week ending January 27, 2007
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> Lost (+ #7) 24,344
02 >>> Prison Break (+ #5) 20,066
03 >>> 24 (+ #8) 12,722
04 >>> NCIS (new) 11,104
05 >>> South Park (new) 10,970
06 >>> Rome (new) 10,782
07 >>> Grey's Anatomy (new) 8,918
08 >>> Battlestar Galactica (- #1) 7,690
09 >>> Desperate Housewives (new) 7,018
10 >>> Heroes (- #6) 6,772
Slashdot Slashdot it!
(Saturday 27th January 2007)
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Member
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27. January 2007 @ 20:58 |
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xhardc0re
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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27. January 2007 @ 23:11 |
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thanks for all the great reporting you've been doing ireland. I especially liked the article on Mark Cuban, the Dell systems w/out an OS and how Billy Gatez plan to release Vista on us hapless lusers. His plan = FAIL.
With DRM putting a bit of coal in my sock post X-mas, i'd like to offer some advice to the computer savvy users on AD. Buy yourself an older mobo & computer system (preferably an older mobo that's still brand new in a box), get yourself a copy of Win98SE, any current distro of Linux that is 100% verified as not containing any DRM code, and a good graphics card. If you can keep your system in good order, and have a good supplier on the older HW, we can weather this storm together. Should Vista start calling home, and TCPA starts monitoring our computers for z0mg teh p1rated softwarez is on your HDD!!1! I must now format C: to continue authorization proce$$, then we can get through M$oft/Intel's evil plans. Should enough consumers get an EFFING CLUE and buy an older PC with no DRM, and stay away from DRM devices, we would forcechoke the evil M$ empire with billions of losses.
Thus, Billy Gatez and his crewe of billionaire SW geniuses will be SOL without enough sales to support further R&D into DRM. They will get a friggin clue & realize us consumers are not lambs to be messed with. Just say Hell No to DRM, TCPA, and the Wintel evil empire.
if you're a college student, do NOT settle with the RIAA http://tinyurl.com/37oz2z
~ SlimPS2 v15US, PSP v3.60FW, TaiyoYuden DVD-R, SwapMagic_v3.6 & BreakerPro 1.1 (No mod)
Writer: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4080N 0G03 SW: DVDDecrypt*r,
lastest Nero Ultra 7 & Alcohol 120% ~ This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. January 2007 @ 23:11
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2007 @ 12:51 |
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