HDCP Key Compromised

As confirmed by Intel, the Blu-ray HDCP master key was leaked the other day. Anybody who is surprised has seriously deluded themselves. The whole concept of DRM is flawed, namely that you'll give people access to watch a video (or whatever) but not give them access to copy it. If you believe that, I'd like to sell you some water that's guaranteed not to get you wet.

One particular thing in the PCMag story stood out to me:

The code to unlock DVDs protected by the Content Scrambling System have been known for years, and are protected by the DVD-CCA, which has sued companies like RealNetworks and Kaleidescape that have attempted to market solutions that rip or store DVD content on a hard drive.

Take note that both RealNetworks and Kaleidescape were DVD-CCA members who paid their license fees and tried to follow the rules. Both were smacked down. This is not about preventing copyright infringement, as evidenced by a visit to any bittorrent site. It's all about preventing anybody from rocking the nice little boat they've got for themselves. It's the medieval guild system re-invented. Nuts to that.

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