[LINK] DRM and DVB Standards

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 01:20:36PM +1100, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> A little way back, I remarked that I believe one of the aims of digital 
> TV is to provide a trojan by which DRM can be brought into the home.
> 
> It seems the EFF agrees:
> http://www.eff.org/IP/DVB/dvb_briefing_paper.php
> [...]
>
> So; the consumer is merely a participant in a cargo cult. Dress up the 
> technology as an "upgrade" and any sucker will buy anything, with a 
> conga line of ... reviewers ... to say "it's wonderful, you get better 
> pictures, the sound is crystal clear!" and so on.
> 
> Some 'digital dividend'.

hey richard, you know how when anyone says RFID is evil you say
(paraphrased) "prove it, all those evil applications you mention are
just hypothetical speculation". well, the same applies here. only more
so. at least with RFID there are actual demonstrable evil applications
in existence right now. which is a lot more than you can say for
DVB-paranoia.

yes, a new version of DVB *could* be developed, with DRM embedded, and that
*could* obsolete all the current DVB players.  but that has no bearing on 
the *CURRENT*, *ALREADY IN EXISTENCE IN REAL, ACTUAL PRODUCTS* DVB.  aside
from some future-DVB sharing the same name and the same basic purpose (digital
video), they're unrelated.

i'm not going to lose any sleep over it. it's unlikely that the
transition to even current DVB will ever actually be "done". some new
DRM version of DVB that doesn't even exist yet isn't going to magically
take over overnight.

in any case, there'll be a hack published.  even if it only runs on linux and
other operating systems without corporate DRM restrictions installed.  that'll
be more incentive for Joe Sixpack to switch away from MS crapware...possibly
the final nail in MS's coffin.

oh yeah, any hack, whatever it is, will also be on cheap imported DVB
players & recorders. probably not on name-brands players...they're a big
enough target to sue. but cheap no-name chinese/korean/taiwaense stuff.
press some obscure key combination (which will be widely published on
web sites) to enable the hack...same as all the cheap DVD players had a
hack to disable region coding.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

BOFH excuse #172: pseudo-user on a pseudo-terminal