Re: hacksdmi?

[David Knaack <dknaack () RDTECH COM>]

From: "Granquist, Lamont" <lamont () ICOPYRIGHT COM>
> On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Blue Boar wrote:
> > OK, here's another tangent to the issue:
> >
> > Why do they (RIAA?) want a watermark in the first place?  What can you
> > do with it?
>
> I think the idea is that they tag the content that you download off of a
> website with a watermark, then they run it through some kind of
> encryption/compression algorithm to the SDMI format.  The client that you
> use to download this is the same client that you use for playback.  The
> watermark is tagged with a specific key which will only allow you to play
> it back on the client that you used to download it.

I can't see this ever working.  They are sending data to your computer,
and there is no way they can prevent someone from storing and modifying
it to remove any access controls.

Attempting to watermark the file is pointless, because if they provide
a software player for computers, it will quickly be reverse-enginereed
to determine how the watermark is detected, which will provide all the
information necessary to defeat the watermark.

They are fighting the same war that it seems most software makers have
already given up on (run away! run away!), and I think they will have
about as much success.  That is, they will put in a token effort (like
a serial number) to 'keep honest people honest', and realize that they
cannot stop the dishonest ones.

DK