The Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are new data carriers for high-resolution motion pictures. For fear of piracy, Hollywood had the developers install a cornucopia of copy prevention mechanisms on them. For instance, the film data on the disks are protected by means of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). Digital output only reaches the monitor via connections encrypted by means of High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). This copy protection chain is designed to ensure that no unencrypted data can be grabbed.
But this security chain has a giant hole. Computer magazine c’t has discovered that the first software players running on Windows XP allow screenshots of the movies to be created in full resolution. To do so, you only need to press the Print key on your keyboard while the movie is running. Such a screenshot function could then be automated to produce copies of HD movies both from Blu-ray Discs and from HD DVDs picture by picture. As c’t calculated, the performance of current PC systems is sufficient for a clean recording using this procedure. Once a pirate has all of the individual pictures, they can be put together to create a complete movie and mixed with the audio track that is grabbed separately.
This copy protection hole affects both Sony’s first Blu-ray PC Vaio VGC-RC 204 and Toshiba’s first HD DVD notebook Qosmio G30. Both of them use special OEM versions of Intervideo’s WinDVD player software.
When asked to comment, Toshiba confirmed the security hole found by c’t, which affects the computers already sold, and announced updates for the player software and graphics card driver. These new software versions should disable the screenshot function.
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Wow that’s an interesting way to rip a movie!
HAHAHA! Won’t they ever learn? No matter what they try to do there will always be someone out there one or two steps ahead of them! They should just give up the battle because they will never win. Remember when that one type of protection came out I think it was Sony some guy just took a sharpie and ran a thin circle around the edge of the CD and got around the protection?! HAHAHA!!!!
I did not know this story was on here until I made a thread about it inthe forums.
Anyway whoever has this software better HANG on to it because it will be like gold since it disables the protections in blue ray and HD- DVD so easily.
The feature to capture screenshots are used by consumers on their own home videos. If they take that feature away & all they can do is just play movies on the computer I don’t think consumers will like to buy that software!
They cannot take this feature away as it has had way too many positive benefits and has been around for some form or another for more then 40 years. Yes I said 40 years. Windows 95 absolutely did not invent print screen under any circumstances conceivable by mankind.
It will probably just dissable the print screen function when your movie is maximized and running if thats the casse someone will find a way to get around thant and rerecord. The fact that a backdoor come out so soon only spells dissaster for the system they have in place.
sorry to post late but this is funny. you can do that with the old dvd formats as well. this is a hole with windows as much at it is with the new formats and encryptions. something the justice dept. and software developers dont realize is that there will never be an end to all this mahem. there are more pirates out there than there is developers with the knolege to stop them. this will never change.