From: "Lane, Richard M" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [SLUG] DeCSS
Date sent: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 10:42:35 +1030
<<SNIPPED>>
> It is NOT easy to duplicate encrypted DVDs. You CAN'T do it with
> consumer grade equipment. Many people say "you just copy the encrypted
> bitstream from the DVD to a new DVD, and tada! bitwise perfect copy."
>
> This WILL NOT work, for the same reason (more or less) that Playstation
> CDs can't be pirated with consumer grade equipment without modifying the
> Playstation, or couldn't just copy the King's Quest III 5 1/4" floppy
> back in the 80's. An encrypted DVD stores the encryption keys in a
> special track, and that track can't be duplicated on consumer DVD
> readers or writers. I don't recall if it's because the DVD player will
> refuse to hand you a bitwise copy of the special track, or because the
> DVD recorder is unable to record the track, but the end result it that
> copying an encrypted DVD using a normal PC is a perfect bitwise copy of
> the encrypted DVD, with no decryption keys on the copy.
Consumer DVD-R (which retail for around $50) are prewritten with 0's in
the key track, this is why you cannot decrypt the copy.
> In the
> playstation's case the CD has some deliberate errors on it, which are
> "fixed" during the copy process, and the "fixed" CDs are detectable to
> the Playstation. Anyone old enough will recognise these techniques as
> being the same as the ones used on early (pre-cd) games for PCs, C-64,
> Amiga, etc. Long sectors, damaged tracks, etc and will also remember all
> the _C_rackers breaking them. DeCSS was originally no different.
>
> DeCSS was originally written by some German Crackers (note the C) who
> posted their l337 code to haxor / warez sites with instructions on how
> to use it to copy DVDs onto VCDs. It was originally written for
> pirating, and only ran on Windows.
>
> Since then it has been ported to Linux, though I'm yet to hear of
> anyone successfully playing a movie using it. The MPAA do have a
> case under the "Millennium Copyright" laws, their "Trade secrets"
> case appeared to be totally bogus, especially since the Xing keys
> may not have actually been used. Of course since the code was
> actually written by anonymous _C_rackers, the details of how it
> was done are sketchy at best.
Well, actually they only have a case under the "Millenium Copyright"
act in AMERICA. That act is NOT a worldwide act, despite USA trying to
make it so.
> I'm really hoping that the MPAA lose, and that DeCSS eventually
> turns into a useable DVD movie player, but neither have happened yet. As
> to comments like "out of my dead hands shall ye prise the DeCSS source
> code", if you don't like the laws, lobby to have them changed, don't
> just break them. I really dislike the idea of laws that aren't enforced,
> or enforceable, as I think it dilutes the laws that should be enforced.
> Protest DOES work, look what happened to the Sodomy laws in Tasmania.
Well, if the court records are anything to go by, MPAA are losing.
After not being allowed to enter the t-shirts with the source code
printed onto them into evidence, they entered a printed copy of the
source code into evidence instead. Not very intelligent for a group
trying to stop the distribution of the source!
<<SNIPPED>>
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