At 05:43 PM 02/21/2000 -0800, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>HDCP uses a 56-bit key, with individual keys distributed to the
>various vendors. A violated key could be tracked down and revoked over
>a satellite broadcast network, for example.
This design does not consider potential end user reactions. Consider the
following:
1. I buy an expensive Sony display.
2. Some evil hacker reverse engineers the Sony key and publishes it.
3. The "satellite broadcast network" revokes Sony's key.
4. My expensive display stops working.
5. Sony spends millions on recalls, PR damage control, etc.
In other words, nobody is going to revoke keys since that would revoke
legitimate access by law-abiding couch potatoes and other customers. The
networks and studios make billions of dollars by making minimal demands of
billions of people in exchange for undemanding entertainment. This strategy
puts the burden on those end users who essentially finance the system
already. Sounds like a losing concept to me, but I'm not surprised someone
has proposed it.
Now, on the other hand, they could do smartcard sorts of things like the
satellite TV folks. That ups the ante, since you have to build in a
smartcard reader and do smartcard-based key management. I'll bet that none
of those costs are in their business model yet.
Rick.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
