11/25, 7:20pm
Hardware rig to outsmart HDCP costs less than $250
The Secure Hardware Group at Germany's Ruhr University has cracked Intel's HDCP video copy protection system. The team used readily available hardware to build a $250 board that could penetrate Intel's video encryption mechanism and view a theoretically protected video. The hack was conducted by a professor and PhD student as part of a doctoral thesis research project in copy protection.
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09/29, 10:55am
HDCP exploit would allow 1080p decryption
The HDCP exploit Intel tried to downplay a couple of weeks ago is now being offered to the public. Created by Rob Johnson and Mikhail Rubnich, the open-source software is said to be capable of decrypting 1080p HDCP video in real-time. This does requires a moderately powerful system, however, with the creators saying a high-end, multi-core 64-bit CPU can decrypt 30FPS, 1080p content using two cores and about 1.6GB of RAM.
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09/17, 12:55am
Company likely to battle circumvention in court
Intel has confirmed that the alleged HDCP 'Master Key,' leaked earlier this week, is the specific code used to secure the copyright-protection standard. The code presumably could be used to create usable source and sync keys, effectively circumventing the DRM protections used in many Blu-ray players, DVD players, displays and set-top boxes.
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09/14, 10:50am
Said to permanently unlock HDCP DRM
News has emerged that the HDCP ‘Master Key’, which permanently unlocks the DRM protocol on Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and displays with HDMI inputs may have been cracked. HDCP DRM works by embedding keys to encrypt and decrypt protected data in the devices and ports, so where content may have been compromised, a future firmware update will stop the compromised data from working. The supposed ‘Master Key’ is said to allow anyone to create their own source and sink key, thereby permanently bypassing the DRM protocol.
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11/26, 8:00pm
DisplayPort DRM conflict
Apple is under fire once again for its use of copyright protection, with the implementation of High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) into the Mini DisplayPort video connection found on the latest MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Air notebooks, according to Macworld.com. The enforcement of HDCP protection had caused problems for a number of iTunes customers, preventing them from playing videos on external displays that were not compatible with the protection standard.
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01/04, 2:50pm
Vista DRM and Netflix
Windows Vista's increased anti-copying protection is already leading some customers of movie services to find themselves locked out of content they have legal rights to watch, users are reporting today. Netflix subscriber Davis Freeberg notes that his access to the movie rental service's Watch Instantly online feature was cut when he upgraded to a newer display that could play HD-level content but did not support HDCP encryption; to regain access, he would have to grant Microsoft's DRM system free reign to scan his system for videos regardless of their source, according to Netflix support staff contacted regarding the problem.
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