ITinfo: DVD Movies Hacked

Site Directory
Membership
Train-the-Trainer
Trainer Certification
Certified Training Materials
ITinfo E-zine
Responsible Training
White Papers
Trainer Resources
What's New
Speaking Engagements
Onsite Training
ITrain Gear

Psst, Buddy...

Wanna buy a movie?

ITinfo Sponsor

ERROR: Random File Unopenable

The random file, as specified in the $random_file perl variable was unopenable.

The file was not found on your file system. This means that it has either not been created or the path you have specified in $trrandom_file is incorrect.

DVD Movies Hacked

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

If you've been to your local Blockbuster lately and you looked around the store, you saw lots more DVD movies than you did just a few months ago. This is the new format that brings digital-quality video and audio home. But the marketing plans for DVD call for it to be copy-proof. Well, don't bet on it.

A utility called DeCSS is making its way around the net, and with it a DVD cracker can snap through the digital encryption on the DVD movie disc and make all the copies of it he wants. The only hardware required is a DVD-ROM drive--a piece of disc hardware that's pretty common these days.

After the copy protection encryption is removed the DVD movie can be converted to a format such as MPEG that will let one movie fit on a CD-ROM, although the audio-visual quality will be closer to video tape than the higher-quality DVD. But for movie pirates looking to make a quick buck on a movie released last night, they'll take sell whatever quality they can get their hands on.

The door to the entire encryption-busting process was left open by one of the vendors involved in the DVD manufacturing process. It was an inadvertent error, probably by an employee with little or no knowledge of the importance of keeping a company secret just that.

If you'd like more information, check out the top cracker sites on the net. This seems to be big news in Hollywood business circles today.

What do you think? Leave your comments on the message center.

Message Center

Previous issues are on our website at http://itrain.org/itinfo/.

International Association of Information Technology Trainers
PMB 616
6030-M Marshalee Dr
Elkridge, MD 21075-5987

410.567.5366
1.888.290.6200
fax: 801.650.0423
Membership Director: member@itrain.org

Return to ITrain Homepage

http://itrain.org/itinfo/1999/it991102.html
updated November 2, 1999