DVD Drives Defeat Cactus Data Shield

jsepeta sends in a story about Cactus Data Shield, one of the schemes to be used for copy-protecting compact discs. A reporter for TechTV notes that DVD drives see right through the disc corruption that Cactus uses to supposedly prevent those CDs from being ripped.

quick

[Anonymous Coward]

throw away your dvd drive before you are arrested for having a copy protection circumvention device!!!

Re:Soon to be illegal...

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, hacker == terrorist, so you'll be considered a terrorist for owning a DVD drive.

I nearly got arrested because of this!

[the_mind_]

I went to the store today and asked for a DVD player. The guy behind the counter started to scream and yell and threatening to call the police and have me arrested for buying a 'device that could be used to circumvent a anti-copy protection'.

Re:All DVD drives...or just that NEC model?

[Krimsen]

Ah, I see. Corporations are helping us to reach Nirvana by not allowing us to own property. They figure if we simply license everything, we won't own it and all of us will become Zen masters with no attachment to the physical world.... and here we are, all thinking that this is some scheme to gain power and extort more money from the hapless masses. Dammit, I knew corporations had the good of humanity in mind all along.

damnit, couldn't they be quiet?

[Barbarian]

Too bad this Cactus system didn't become the standard before this was discovered, then RIAA would be a laughingstock.

Re:Another way around it:

[dimator]

That's an interesting method. Here's another that I prefer:

1) Take 'Natalie Imbruglia - White Lillies Island' CD.

2) Fasten the disc to your car's bumper with a chain.

3) Drive around until there's nothing left but the chain.

This is idiocy, it's fundamentally a paradox.

[aussersterne]

The RIAA and MPAA are selling data to us-- and trying to protect themselves by making this data unavailable to us once we've bought it. If we can't get at the data, there's no point and we won't buy it, so the data will always be accessible somehow.

However, since the customer is allowed to hear the music or see the film, the data has been "released" into the wild and can easily be recaptured in other formats. In other words, they cannot use purely digital, "black-box" means to protect this data because we have nice analog visual and auditory systems that require this data to pass through the air in order for us to perceive and enjoy it.

Once the data is in the air, any microphone, nice camera, etc. etc. will be able to grab it out of the air again.

The only way I can see copy protection working is if in 50 years all "out-loud" music is strictly forbidden and illegal and instead, we have a DBC (digital-to-brain converter) implanted in our skull that accepts an input from the line-out jack on our "secure" digital music device.

There will have to be secret police everywhere to make sure nobody actually hums along, because if anyone does, someone with a hidden microphone (banned decades ago, but available on the black market, nevertheless) might capture it and distribute it, not to mention the 20 other people in the room who will hear this humming and thus "steal" the music without paying the original artist/composer for it...

Re:Another way around it:

[purplemonkeydan]

As an added bonus, this procedure greatly enhances the sound, and makes the CD actually tolerable.

Re:All DVD drives...or just that NEC model?

[harlows_monkeys]

So they're cutting out the portion of their customers who have jobs then?

No, they are assuming that those people who have jobs can afford $25 for a portable CD player to use at work.

Re:Perfect copy protection IS possible!

[reynaert]

If L > 0, the data will be copied.

Perhaps you could define L? ;)

No one picked up on this?

[A_Non_Moose]

Cactus protection?

Don't touch the data or you will be subjected to thousands of lawy^H^H^H^H little pricks!

Talk about hidden meaning.

.

Re:Another way around it:

[selectspec]

That's an interesting method. Here's another that I prefer:
1) Take 'Natalie Imbruglia - White Lillies Island' CD.
2) Fasten the disc to your car's bumper with a chain.
3) Drive around until there's nothing left but the chain.

Then take the chain, wrap it around a rafter in a high ceiling, and hang yourself from it. Do your family a favor and don't mention the CD in your suicide note.

Re:Now the big question: Who will cave in first?

[tramm]

Will this end up like the VHS market where VHS recorders started intentionally mis-recording Macrovision protected content,

Any video recording device is required by law to either be affected by the sync signal corruption or to detect it and intentionally degrade the recording quality. Unfortunately, Macrovision has all of the patents on this technique, which means that you must license it from them if you want to comply with the law.

Yet another problem with the DMCA... Perhaps we will soon see legislation that requires cameras to superimpose clothing on the emperor so that citizens may not document his lack of clothes.

Re:if you can listen to it, you can rip it

[mjwise]

...microphones are just tools of ... kiddie-pr0n drug-snorting criminals anyway.

But what about the artists that use microphones to record their work? Oh, wait, nevermind.

Interesting formula

[roystgnr]

It tries to look credibly scientific, yet it does not use any units, it tries to quantify non-constant values, it's simplistic, it's presented without any justification, and it has several glaring errors.

Have you considered a career as an economist?

Re:Dell.

[matrix29]

Wednesday November 14
9:51 PM EST
Steve Badly Beaten

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/11/steve.html [bbspot.com]