From: Jenaer Mixmaster Anonserver <mixmaster@as-node.jena.thur.de>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 00:34:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: need confirmation of DVD/CSS crack in China ...
Message-ID: <m0x3xA1-0003xeC@as-node.jena.thur.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Ernest Hua (hua@chromatic.com) wrote:
>> Third, the entertainment industry giants will have to improve and agree on
>> an encryption technology. The current 40-bit encryption standard used on
>DVD
>> discs, which is supposed to stop copyright pirates, has already been
>cracked
>> in China. Stronger encryption, however, forces PCs and players to run at a
>> crawl. Partially as a result, Fox, Paramount, and Disney have not
>committed
>> to producing materials on DVD, Burdon noted.

  DVD encryption is described on the Web at:

    http://www.kipinet.com/tdb/tdb_oct96/feat_protection.html

  There's a very simple way to 'break' it - you just copy the entire disk.
Key-size is irrelevant. As the article itself says:

 "While copy protection for DVD is often mistakenly referred to as
  "anti-piracy," it does not in fact provide much of a deterrent to
  those who would produce illegal discs on a mass scale."

  Or in other words, it will do nothing to stop the Chinese, it's simply
intended to prevent you and me from copying disks and giving them to
our friends. This is, of course, inevitable from the nature of the
technology. As has been discussed many times in the past, this kind of
scheme just can't work.

  Since that article is a few months old and talks about the big movie 
company's desire for a mandatory standard and laws against the sale of
any machine which allows access to unencrypted data, I'd guess that this
new article is FUD to persuade Congress to pass the laws.

  (Now explain to me why I'd want to buy yet another video format which
can't even record?)

CopyMonger