DRM: What is the point?
The BBC was informed in advance that I intended to 'hack' their DRM and I'd likely have it on my "free as in beer" FreeBSDv7 within a half a day. It took me allot less time than that. I have absolutely no intention of using the DRM as a license to steal BBC programming, but what about the script-kiddie that figures it out in a few weeks and tells all his friends, who tell theirs and so on?
__All__ DRM is seriously flawed. It cannot ever work as "key management" becomes next to impossible. Algorithms that 'solve puzzles' can easily solve any "DRM puzzle" due to the repetitive nature of video signals. It doesn't matter if its 40bit (about five minutes on my personal computer -- actually a super-mini designed and built by myself) or 128bit, ('till the sun don't shine -- Ha!) there is simply no way that wouldn't exclude almost everyone. To exclude me, who would never, ever use Windows as a primary OS, would mean excluding 99.99% of all viewers. While its not quite as simple as CSS: "One simply doesn't bother picking locks when a plastic card will do".
Remember a "feature" of Microsoft is 'undeleting'. This should tell anyone its a piece of cake you can eat too. All Unix files systems are far more advanced, yet it is still possible to recover data -- a shock to some, I guess. A TV picture has a very precise timing that is virtually impossible to scramble. Remove half of the timing signals (the framing, etc.) and it can still be easily be reconstructed. Short of using actual cryptography, this cannot hide.
This is the broadcast principle. Can a million people have a secret? Hell no! "Microsoft DRM" is as flawed as any.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
