Microsoft DRM Code for Netflix Streams Hacked 154
reddburn writes "Macworld has posted a story by IDN News Service about a hacker who posted instructions for saving streaming movies from Netflix, defeating Microsoft's DRM code designed to prevent users from saving the content. From the article: 'A hacker who calls himself Dizzie wrote late last month on the Rorta hacking forum that "Netflix doesn't easily allow you to save the flicks and watch them at your leisure because the films are entrapped in some ... Windows Media DRM wrapper," referring to Microsoft's DRM system. Word of his hack spread more widely this week in various blogs and Web sites...He writes that the process for removing the DRM could take a few attempts, and the process does not remove the time limit imposed by Netflix on viewing the content. The Netflix site was down for maintenance early Thursday, although it was unclear if it was related to the hack. The site was back up later Thursday morning.'"
Thursday?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Very depressing that people are now hacking content they paid for
Cheers!
Re: (Score:2)
What's the difference between this and breaking DRM on a music CD so that you can rip it to MP3 to play on your iPod? Or do you enjoy being ass-raped by the media companies?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you read one too many EULAs? You do not rent anything. As long as you are consistent with copyright law (including fair use provisions), you are free to do whatever you want with what you bought and paid for! These is no license, there is no contract, and there is no "renting", regardless of what the media companies might want you to think...
Re:Thursday?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Before that, we just taped movies off of HBO. Until the re-release in theaters back in the '90s, I thought Star Wars started with the droids in the desert.
Is it too much to ask to read the comment chain? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Is it too much to ask to read the comment chain (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For starters, I don't care what the terms of service say - any company infringing on my government-issued rights isn't getting any sympathy from me. Amy I not supposed to use my PSP for homebrew just because Sony doesn't like it? Or not install my extra legal OSX license on non-Apple hardware just because Apple says I shouldn't?
Second, this isn't a free-coffe and -beer scenario. As generous as your offer is, Netflix is not so giving. They are
Re: (Score:2)
Just because Netflix thinks that means nothing. It would be for a competent court to decide which of Netflix's terms and condictions are valid and applicable.
Re: (Score:2)
The general term is "law of the land" which is the collection of statute, case and common law applicable to whereever you happen to be. The terms of a contract/service are only valid where they operate within this framework.
What would you do if Blockbuster told you that the DVD you rented from the store could only be played between 1am and 6am on Thursday, a
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It should be avoided. It should be illegal.
Err... Why?
Rental, and other temporary agreements, open a channel for people to pay less for products/benefits than they would normally on the basis that they use it for only as long as it immediately suits them. In the case of ephemeral information rental, similar distribution costs and methods of "buy" versus "rent" may, at
Re: (Score:2)
It's not easy for me to do a duplicate, I should have to buy a tape, a player/recorder, it takes time,
Pure information rental is not at all a service to me.
I still don't see the difference-- at least not one that would justify one being a service and the other not-- between renting information delivered on a disc or tape, and renting information delivered on the wire. It's the same content, merely
Re: (Score:2)
This is actually an inherent limi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Where the work in question is a "motion picture drama" the "creator" tends to be a rather large group of people. Though probably the majority are actually just paid for their work, only some getting per copy royalties (probably actually a fixed fee plus royalties...)
Re: (Score:2)
Where does it say that I am merely renting the music (or video or whatever)? If they had 2 separate prices, one for renting and one for buying, I might believe you.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
LOS GATOS, Calif., January 16, 2007 -- Netflix, Inc., the world's largest online movie rental service, today introduced a new feature that allows people to immediately watch movies and television series on their personal computers...
Subscribers will continue to receive DVDs by mail from the company's catalog of over 70,000 titles and will ha
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Cheers!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
For the record, I use Blockbuster purely because I can return the game in store and get another movie then.there.
Cheers!
--
Vig
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I'm not sure why one would bother breaking the streaming DRM anyway; the quality is pretty bad considering. If you want to store it for a long term, just rent the DVD and rip it from there.
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty lame.
Re: (Score:1)
Actually, it's an hour for every dollar you spend on your subscription a month. So if you have a pricier subscription, say 4 movies-at-a-time, you're getting 16-20 hours a month.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you have trouble with the idea of downloading something that will only be playable for a limited time frame via DRM tools? The concept of the internet does not imply one must watch it at the time it is downloading (and be subject to network burps and such), The only thing that implies that are the dumb people at the sites like netflix that can't grasp the concept of download now, watch later, and DRM prevents it from being watched beyond some date or number of plays. So I hereby accuse you of not
Re: (Score:2)
so you want to wait, even when you don't have to.
but why not see if you can do it now.
Like most online comments about the service, netflix streaming doesn't interest me, because I don't like to watch TV on my computer, when my TV is setup better for that.
I do have a network attached linktheater DVD player, and all my DVD's are ripped to a hard drive and streamed to this play
Re: (Score:2)
Recording a stream may well mean I can just watch it at a different time than when it gets streamed ... which is important for people who have low bandwidth and queue 8 hours of downloading overnight to grab a 2 hour movie to watch the next day.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Thursday?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
There IS NO DRM on a music CD.
Does that clear up the difference?
Re: (Score:1)
Does that clear up the difference?
After years of internet research, I have come up with this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_manag
Re:Thursday?? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Wiki article is simply incorrect. If you have an optical disc that plays in an audio CD player, but it has DRM on it, it is NOT an audio CD as it does not follow the Red Book standard for audio CDs. It is a different beast which happens to work in some audio CD players.
At first glance, it sounds like a horribly semantic difference, and the two of us seem to be locked in hopeless pedantry, however it's an important difference when it comes to sales of the discs. If the packaging and marketing promote the disc as an audio CD, but it doesn't follow the Red Book standard, they are guilty of false advertising. They have tricked me by calling it an audio CD when it is not one, and may not play in players which expect to find the format of a Red Book audio CD on the disc.
So no. No audio CDs have DRM.
Re: (Score:1)
The original statement didn't say "Red Book standard audio cd", so it was ambigious. Thus, I'm assuming he meant what people usually mean when they refer to an audio cd, which is an audio cd they play in a cd player.
On a side note, there are cd's you get with data stream containing music video's/extras. Though I don't know if these are part of the Red Book standard or not, most people would also consider these to be audio cd's.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Torben
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is, there are billions of listeners out there who have never heard of the Red Book. They don't care if the sky is green or the sky is blue. The music plays and that is enough.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Thursday?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Jeez, doesn't anybody actually read the source of these stories
Re: (Score:2)
So the question is how much time do you get charged with this scheme? Can you download the entire movie without "watching" it?
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:[AC]Thursday?? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So tell me why it is that Netflix wants to force people to only watch a movie at the same time they are streaming it? Why is Netflix wanting to subject their viewers to the blips and burps of the net? Why is Netflix limiting their customer base to only those with high enough bandwidth for live streaming? Why not use the DRM to let people download and save the movie and watch it only within 3 days? If I hack it so that all that I change is to give me 3 days to watch it, sure, maybe I'm stealing a little
Re: (Score:1)
Very depressing that people are now hacking content they paid for :(
I've been hacking legitimately purchased video games for years because I don't like the hassle of inserting discs. It's nothing new, and certainly nothing new when it comes to people that want to watch films or listen to music on devices that they may not "legally" be allowed to, regardless of how they acquired them. In the case of NetFlix though, I can't see a lot of theoretical work around for pirates to argue. It's not as if someone goes through the trouble of downloading a film just ot watch it and the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Thursday?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn't you mean to say:
Very depressing that people are forced to hack content they paid for :(
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Netflix hasn't always been all that consumer-friendly of a company, but in the movie rental business, they're light years ahead of everyone else in service to the consumer.
Re: (Score:2)
Companies do not lower rates because they love their customers and want to do kind things for them and make them as happy as they can. They do so because they believe it is in their best interest to do so -- and saying it is in their best interest to do so means that it will in their judgment make them more money (in the short term or long term).
In a competative market "Consumer-friendliness" may w
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Very depressing that people are now hacking content they paid for :("
My understanding is that they pay to stream, not to download. A download version would presumably cost more, as it has more value. This hack lets you download and save to your hard drive and only pay the price for streaming.
Pay less, get less, pay more, get more. I see that there's a fair amount of outrage here; it's billed as a streaming service but I suppose that we feel that should be getting more for our money -- thus it's our p
Re: (Score:2)
So they aren't losing a penny if us BSD/Linux users watch their content without paying.
Re: (Score:2)
Linux is stymied as a desktop platform due to 20 years of market inertia, not the fact that it's owned by some robber baron that's more than willing to bend over forward for a bunch of other robber barons.
For most software, that is completely immaterial.
The whole DRM thing has only come up pretty much yesterday in historical terms.
There's Linux software that does this same exact thing.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if this is the same as Zune DRM? (Score:3, Funny)
Huh? (Score:2)
Reeltime is cool (Score:1, Informative)
I'm a happy customer of Reeltime [reeltime.com]. Streaming online movies, no fuss no crap. They're expanding their library of movies all the time.
Check 'em out.
(not an employee, just a satisfied customer)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
-matthew
A little lesson in DRM: (Score:3, Insightful)
Open up, please.
Not new in any way shape or form (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't new at all; the DRM crack is still FairUse4WM, which has been around for years, all the "hacker" has down is document how to discover the file URL and download it, nothing more.
DRM hacked? *yawn* (Score:1, Informative)
Do we really need a story every time this happens?
Slashdot's story quality is going down the toilet fast.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
People have been saying this for years now...are you folks really trying to tell me that slashdot was once so awesome and amazing that not even god could have handled it?
Re: (Score:2)
http://meta.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/01/
Re: (Score:1)
Besides which, that post doesn't really work without the OMG Ponies theme - I had to scrub my eyeballs after that one.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
But if anyone wants to do this to download and keep the file, I really have to question WHY?? The only way to do this is if you have a Netflix account. So, if you're hell-bent on keeping a copy, you might as well go through the whole process of having the DVD sent to you and then do a rent-rip-return. At least that way you'll get the whole thing in full DVD quality with all of the bells, whistles, commentaries, and additional material.
Not only do you need a Netflix account, but you also obviously need to have a broadband connection. In that case there are plenty of other outlets from Usenet to P2P to IRC to obtain copies of movies that already have any DRM stripped off.
And if it's a movie that you really would like but don't want to pay $20 for a new DVD, why not just pay $5 for a used DVD from Netflix from whom you already are paying $xx per month for the subscription? I did that for a movie that my wife wanted, and the movie was in our mailbox in three days, complete with Amaray case and cover art.
I honestly don't see why this is a big deal. There are so many other outlets to get movies illegally, even the complete DVD images. I know very well that the Linux crowd would love to make this an example of how people don't want DRM in order to enforce Fair Use with non-Windows systems and I agree with that. But we all know that the conspiracy-loving media, the studios, and the only-pirates-talk-about-removing-DRM-under-the-di
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
there are plenty of reasons to want a clean file on your hard drive instead of some streaming BS.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Besides, how do you play a DVD on an iPod for instance? You can't!
Re: (Score:2)
I understand that this particular system was designed with streaming in mind, but that sure as hell isn't because streaming is more convenient than downloading. streaming content is harder (but clearly not very hard) to pirate, etc. in this case the streaming
Did you read too quickly or something? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Okay, if this is to watch the videos on a non-Windows system or if you ha[t]e being forced into Windows/IE, fine. I'm okay with that as long as you manually adhere to the rental terms and delete the file."
"that" makes the statement only apply to those on non-windows systems, as per your first sentence. I am talking about a windows user that wants to rent a movie or two for a long trip. if this kind of DMCA shenanagins is ok for for a linux user, it should be ok for a
Re: (Score:2)
I have a netflix and I often rent DVDs from them, however I am also entitled to 17 hours of their streaming service as part of my membership. I have many machines which are not capable of of playing nicely with windows DRM, also my machine which is capable of doing it the way netflix inten
Re: (Score:2)
As long as some content provider makes sure that their content can only be viewed (or listened) via a Microsoft OS, then I, a use of only BSD/Linux software (well, OK, I have a couple Solaris machines, too), see this as a case where the content provider has no expectation of any revenues from me. Since they have no basis for expecting any money from me, then how does it matter if I view (listen to) the content and don't pay them? I didn't deprive them of anything ... not even an expectation of revenue. I
Re: (Score:2)
How about because I just rented the movie via the subscription service, and didn't know I'd like it enough to keep it until after a viewing? Why would I want to wait for the DVD (unless I really care about the extras) or go find it on a P2P service where my IP address can be tracked?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm one of those people who think that making permanent copies of material without paying for them is theft. On the other hand, I am one of those people who refuse to pay for the same (or inferior versions) of the same content for different machines/media players. Yes, if I want a BlueRay version of a movie I bought on DVD, I should have to buy it. If I want the extras and extended scenes on some super new special edition versions, I should have to pay for it. If I want to watch
Re: (Score:2)
DMCA dead by default? (Score:2)
Did something happen while I was asleep or is there still a DMCA?
Re: (Score:1)
$2 billion for a file?! Woah. No wonder Vista is so expensive. There's lots of files in there!
macworld? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ha, Windows DRM was broken but the DRM on my platform is secure. Huzzah!! No sharing of media for me!
misleading title (Score:3, Insightful)
netflix needs to control their streams better.
DRM doesn't have to be perfect (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm Gonna Be Pissed... (Score:2, Insightful)
Good DRM? (Score:4, Insightful)
WHAT?!?!? (Score:2)
This is the part of the post where I defeat the lameness filter that doesn't allow me to post my +1 Funny comment in all caps.