New Copy Protection to Make Playing DVDs on a PC Difficult

The Cowardly Pirate writes "ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 blog is reporting that new copy-protection software for DVD publishers from a company called ProtectDisc not only makes it difficult to rip movies that you've purchased but also prevents discs from playing in a Windows PC at all. From the article: 'Protect DVD-Video is the brainchild of a company called ProtectDisc. Part of the copy-protection mechanism is a non-standard UDF (Universal Disc Format) file system which results in the IFO file on the DVD (this is the file responsible for storing information on chapters, subtitles and audio tracks) appearing to the PC as being zero bytes long.'"

Ooh! More great news!

[KingSkippus]

I love reading stuff like this. I hope that they lock DVDs down so tight that no one can even play them on their regular players. Then, when the next blockbuster movie sell a grand total of four DVDs, maybe the movie and television studios will finally realize how much money this is costing them.

And seriously, can I see a quick show of hands of everyone who thinks that this will keep people from copying DVDs?...

Yeah, that's what I thought, and neither do I.

Bastards

[Lost+Found]

What makes me angry about this isn't that I won't be able to find movies online; hell, it's usually possible to get them before they're even available from Blockbuster. What's irritating is that I'm an honest customer of the MPAA. I have a huge shelf of DVDs. I'm a DVD collector. The first time I buy a DVD that has been engineered in such a way to not play, I'm going to return it and never buy a DVD again.

Note: This doesn't mean I'm going to stop watching movies. Do the fucking math, MPAA.

Nothing to see here

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like this only effects the IFO on the disc. VLC (along with many other players) can play the VOB files without using an IFO.

A workaround already exists

[fructose]

Of course the encryption is already broken. From the article:

SlySoft have a product called AnyDVD [slysoft.com] which works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it's inserted into the drive. The other day they released an updated version of AnyDVD which effortlessly bypasses Protect DVD-Video.

Nice try. I'll give you a cookie.

Learn Dammit

[COMON$]

When are these companies going to learn...every "protected" piece of crap they put out there gets broken. It is inevitable, Mr Anderson. When you figure out how much money the world has put into copy protection, vs how much they have actually lost to piracy...what are they really gaining?

Re:Amusing..

[xantho]

It's generally pretty difficult to return opened media these days. You'd probably have to make a big stink out of it at Best Buy to get the yellow shirt to approve it.

Re:Creative: prepare to pay the lawyers

[gfxguy]

I was just involved in a class action (something I almost always disagree with), and the settlement was that the company will reimburse me for the repair I had to make, and will fix the problem if it happens again for free.

So yes, class actions are abused 99% of the time, and the lawyers are the only ones who benefit, but "never" is a harsh word.

Downgrade while you still can...

[Kadin2048]

Instructions to downgrade the firmware are here:

http://www.epizenter.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_ viewtopic.php?46417 [epizenter.net]

I would send a nasty letter to Creative when you're done downgrading too, but that's just me. I know I sent one to Apple when they castrated iTunes' ability to share over the internet, a feature that I had used all the time to listen to my music while studying or working in another building.

Companies need to know that we won't just bend over and let them fuck us with little "upgrades" like that, at least not without noticing.

Re:Nothing to see here

[walt-sjc]

who really wants to have to pop open a VOB file to watch a movie?
Um, someone who want's to bypass all the non-skipable trailers (commercials), FBI warnings, and other crap and just play the friggin movie??? If you have a child, you know how fsking obnoxios disney movies are. Yep, rip em down to Mpeg4 and play via Mythtv.

TGFH (Thank God For HandBrake)

[Kadin2048]

Everyone in between is better off using a pirated copy, because it is just better.

Agreed. I hardly even watch movies straight from DVD anymore. Even if I'm just going to watch it once, I just run them through HandBrake first. That way I don't have to deal with crappily designed menus, FBI warnings, and mandatory-view advertisements. (Because yes, Virginia, a "preview" is just an advertisement for another movie.)

I've told more than one other person about HandBrake and now they do the same thing. I wouldn't call it quite "Grandma friendly" yet (although the stripped-down iPod version is) but it's pretty close. If the person you're instructing knows the difference between a Phillips screw and a Torx, they can probably deal with HandBrake.

No eventually about it

[Sycraft-fu]

Macs read the data in the same way PCs do. If the contents are messed up, the DVD won't play in a Mac either. it's not a Mac/PC thing it's a smart/dumb thing. Stand alone DVD players are normally "dumb" meaning they know very little about the disc they are playing. PCs/Macs are "smarter" and rely on that information to figure out what to do and where to read things.

European Perspective

[RAMMS+EIN]

I live in the Netherlands, but I know the situation is the same in many other EU countries:

Since the implementation of the EUCD, it is now against the law to bypass "effective technical measures" that restrict what can be done with a copyrighted work, even if these restrictions involves rights you would normally have under copyright law.

At the same time, downloading copyrighted material off the 'net is explicitly allowed. The copyright holders are paid from a levy that is imposed on blank media.

As a result of this, for me as a Linux user, it is illegal for me to watch movies from "copy-protected" DVDs that I bought and paid for, but it is legal to watch the same movies if I download them off the 'net for free.

Re:Creative: prepare to pay the lawyers

[tonyr1988]

There's been a lot of discussion about this over at www.epizenter.net - Creative never forced the firmware "upgrade," and they list the removal of FM recording openly on their site. Thus, it will be really hard to get a successful lawsuit out of it.

Re:Downgrade while you still can...

[XorNand]

Companies need to know that we won't just bend over and let them fuck us with little "upgrades" like that, at least not without noticing.

Since you didn't mention otherwise, I'm going to assume that you still use iTunes? How exactly is that not "bending over?" If that feature was really that important to you, you would switched to using WinAmp and Shoutcast (or something similar). It's doubtful that Apple cares what you think is important to you. That doesn't affect your buying decision. They're more interested in what you actually care about.

Re:some thoughts

[Tom]

Addendum: I just found out that the built in DVD Player of OSX will play DVD image files just fine, with full functionality, just like a real DVD. On an image file, I can fix the region to whatever I want it to be.

So MPAA, if you're listening, please give me one reason to give you money. Not that I don't want to, some movies actually are worth it, but with all this hostility and restrictions you shove in my face, give me one reason not to prefer Pirate Bay.

Re:Downgrade while you still can...

[jachim69]

Hell, I'm running both my Creative Zen Micro and my wife's on ages old firmware simply because I can't stand the 4 hour poweroff timer in the newer versions. The old firmware would wait 24 hours before completely powering off. The new one does it after 4. A complete power down loses the position in the current track. You have to set a bookmark to save it across a complete power down. I listen to lots of podcasts that are 20 to 90 minutes long. I stop when I get home and resume the next morning, and do the same at work/lunch/going home. It's a major PAIN IN THE ASS to have to remember to set a bookmark every time I have to quit for more than 4 hours. So, I kept copies of the older firmware installers and downgraded after about 2 days. Creative says the 4 hour limit is to improve battery life, but I just charge the damn thing every other day (at least) and I have absolutely no complaints.

Re:DVD Jon

[neil.orourke]

Not only that, but AnyDVD makes DVD's bearable by skipping all the forced junk that a stand-alone player must show.

Re:Tutorial: How to prevent ANY PC from playing it

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the widest standardly available slot on a PC case. Media wider than this would require very specific hardware, or an external drive at the least, for every single user.

AnyDVD

[htnprm]

Ah AnyDVD. Some of the best money I've ever spent. Period.

Re:European Perspective

[Kamineko]

In the UK, Tessa Jowell [wikipedia.org] is the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

According to the website for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport [culture.gov.uk], you can contact Tessa Jowell through the DCMS by writing a letter to:

Department for Culture Media & Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH

Or by telephone:

020 7211 6200 open 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday

Or by e-mail:

[e-mail]

Re: Message to DVD industry: Byte Me!

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative Zen Vision:M developer here, posting anonymously of course.

Disabling FM Recording is a precautionary response to a copyright infringement lawsuit brought on us by a certain entity, and has nothing to do with DRM or whatever. This will probably remain disabled until the lawsuit is settled. Of course, reenabling it is simply a compile flag and can be done in no time...

Re:DVD Jon

[Fordiman]

Well, the reason the hack works is because of a kind of cheapness in common DVD players: they read the ISO9660 filesystem and ignore the UDF system (as all the player needs is the DVD filenames). As a result, the iso9660 stuff likely reports the correct data, while the UDF does not. Simple hack: mount as ISO9660 in Linux and play via filesystem (rather than via /dev/dvd). As a result, Linux users are actually better off then Windows for once when it comes to DVDs.

Funny stuff. No, really.