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Topic: Which copy protection & DRM's cracked? (Read 4937 times) previous topic - next topic
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Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

I was talking with my sister last night and the subject got onto the HDTV broadcast flag.

Naturally I said it'd be bypassed immediately, assuming Congress actually allows the FCC to implement it.

Anyway, that got me thinking about A/V copy protection and DRM in general...  Which ones have already been cracked?

DVD has, of course.  So has Microsoft media player drm v2.

But what about...?

1) Microsoft media player DRM 1.  Supposedly it's similar to v2 or something.

2) audio cd's.  I haven't been keeping track, but right off hand I think that all copy protected audio cd's have been cracked or bypassed.  No method has survived more than a few weeks.

3) itune's AAC.  I heard / read somebody say that it was quickly cracked (or at least bypassed / neutralized / stripped) but I haven't heard anything since, and if that had been true it'd be reported everywhere.

Are there even any other audio / video DRM methods even in use?  Sure, I know Real and Ogg both have them, but they aren't used enough to matter.  (And Ogg's drm has never been used, to my knowledge.)

What do these other legal audio places use?  Probably Microsoft WMA, but v1 or v2 or something newer?

What about the "Secure Digital" flash memory cards that many mp3 players use?



With the possible exception of Apple's AAC and WMA v1, it doesn't look like DRM or A/V copy protection has had all that much sucess.  Certainly not enough to justify the cost of developing those methods.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #1 –
Some audio CD protections were promptly cracked (the marker trick    ), some didn't work at all (The latest SunnCom one, that only works if autorun is enabled), thus didn't need to be cracked.
All are copiable with the right hardware, and in last resort, even if a CD was not copiable in a computer, you can record it digitally, which is the same.
Note that the soundcards allowing it (M-Audio, Terratec etc) are certainly illegal under the new laws, or rather, it is illegal to sell them to the public (but not to recording studios).

The SACD and DVD-A protections (respectively hardware and software) are not cracked yet.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #2 –
Quote
Note that the soundcards allowing it (M-Audio, Terratec etc) are certainly illegal under the new laws, or rather, it is illegal to sell them to the public (but not to recording studios).

Can you back this up with any government statement or similar ?

I would just think that a digital copy is one of the "simple means" to circumvent a copy protection ...
The name was Plex The Ripper, not Jack The Ripper

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #3 –
Quote
3) itune's AAC.  I heard / read somebody say that it was quickly cracked (or at least bypassed / neutralized / stripped) but I haven't heard anything since, and if that had been true it'd be reported everywhere.

AFAIK it hasn't been cracked yet. If it were, it'd be big news in the Mac world, and I haven't seen anything about it (yet). Given time it will be cracked, all schemes will, but I hope that it'll get to live a little longer than Microsoft's scheme did.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #4 –
Quote
Quote
3) itune's AAC.  I heard / read somebody say that it was quickly cracked (or at least bypassed / neutralized / stripped) but I haven't heard anything since, and if that had been true it'd be reported everywhere.

AFAIK it hasn't been cracked yet. If it were, it'd be big news in the Mac world, and I haven't seen anything about it (yet). Given time it will be cracked, all schemes will, but I hope that it'll get to live a little longer than Microsoft's scheme did.

itune's AAC is very easy to crack. Burn a CD and rip it...
If you encode in mp3, the quality won't be great, this is not related to the method but this is due to the transcoding from AAC to mp3.
Lossless should be a better way.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #5 –
Securom 4.8 (game copy protection)
Its not 100% cracked.. it can be emulated but not copied
Sven Bent - Denmark

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #6 –
Quote
itune's AAC is very easy to crack. Burn a CD and rip it...

Personally i'd define 'cracked' as decrypting the original compressed bitstream.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #7 –
Quote
Quote
Note that the soundcards allowing it (M-Audio, Terratec etc) are certainly illegal under the new laws, or rather, it is illegal to sell them to the public (but not to recording studios).

Can you back this up with any government statement or similar ?

I would just think that a digital copy is one of the "simple means" to circumvent a copy protection ...

Sorry, I didn't see your answer.

Well, a simple digital copy is by no means illegal, but protected CDs are protected also against digital copy with the SCMS flag, that must be compulsory on consumer gear, I think.
If you try to copy them digitally with a SoundBlaster soundcard, the card returns an error like "The incoming digital stream is copy-protected, it cannot be recorded".

Marian, Terratec, Midiman etc soundcards clearly violate this standard copy protection system.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #8 –
You mean something like this?:
Stay sane, exile.

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #9 –
This doesn't seem complete... for digital out it should be :
-Unlimited copy allowed
-One copy allowed
-Copy forbidden

Since there are two bits, a fourth value is possible. Maybe it means "non audio".
The name is SCMS : Serial Copy Management System.
 

Which copy protection & DRM's cracked?

Reply #10 –
The 'Copyright' option sets/unsets the copyprotection bit, allowing no copies to be done.
'Original' activates the generation bit, permitting only one copy to be made.
If both these are unset, unlimited copies are allowed.

The Non-Audio option does this according to the manual:
"Non-Audio adds information to the data stream that indicates that control information (such as channel assignments) is being transfered in addition to the audio information. Activate the Non-Audio mode when transferring AC3 or DTS audio signals from a software DVD player to an external decoder."
Stay sane, exile.