Jon Bringing WMV9 to Linux

julie-h writes "DVD Jon has done it again. This time it wasn't Apple the target, but Microsoft's WMV9 video format. There is as always a working Proof of Concept program with screenshots."

What happened here?

[natrius]

From the article linked to the blog post, it seems that he got the reference decoder for the VC-1 standard, which is compatible with WMP9, to work in VLC. The headline makes it look like there was some sort of reverse engineering done here, but after actually reading the article (gasp), it doesn't seem like that's the case.

Source code?

[betonme]

So it is running in a GPL program (VLC) using an open (VC1) standard. Details? Anyone? Link to the source? Hello?

Re:Bringing WMV9 to linux

[Deliveranc3]

Just not legally. Of course, noone in the linux community give a ripe fuck about whether or not the code they run is legal.

You got modded flamebait but you raise a valid point, Linux previously did try and adhere to legality whenever possible. There was the whole not including a mp3 codec debacle.

I have proposed a Black Hat Linux, it will come with a windows installer on the same DVD and a bunch of closed source apps.

Unfortunatly I also believe in the Linux movement, the idea of freeing all software may be forwarded more rapidly by creating free alternatives and having them widely adopted to the extent that no one will WAMT to pay for software, (as opposed to everyone agreeing to steal it and driving the closed source companies out of business). Either way would accomplish the same purpose.

VC-1 and Windows Media DRM

[News for nerds]

According to the blog, it seems it uses VC-1 reference decoder to play WMV9 on Linux. IIRC VC-1 is open source now after it was submit to SMPTE for the review. Is there any difference between VC-1 and WMV9 except for four CC code and other trivial things?

Also, at the first glance at the headline of this story, I'd thought DVD Jon cracked DRM on WMV9 and delighted, but he didn't apparently, so non-Linux people don't have much to rejoice about this story anyway. If I'm mistaken and this story can be related to Windows Media DRM somehow, please point it to me as I'm happy if that's true.

MPlayer?

[OblongPlatypus]

Hasn't this been possible all along, with MPlayer? Their codec status table [mplayerhq.hu] lists "Windows Media Video 9 DMO" as working. Is that not the same thing as the WMV9 referred to here?

Rawr

[Renraku]

If Microsoft could allow images to run code when viewed, I guess video files are no different. Watch out all you porn viewers using Windows Media Player.

Your modem is about to disconnect and dial The Czech Republic.

Re:Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't crack the WMV9 codec, he used the VC-1 reference codec which is based on WMV 9 video streams. I don't think it's that big a deal ...

Licensing Windows Media for Other Platforms

[westlake]

It can be useful to ask how much it would cost to license Microsoft's media.

The answer for a video decoder is 10 cents per unit with a $40,000 cap. Windows Media Licensing Fees and Royalties [microsoft.com] (September 2004)

You want to see Linux on every desktop? Would it kill you to admit that shelling out the bucks to license proprietary technologies that might actually get you there makes some sense?

None of the commercial Linux distros are going to touch a decoder that has "lawsuit" written all over it.

Hold on a second

[brighton]

Maybe someone can explain this to me. It would seem to me that there's no encryption being broken here. But let's say we wanted to play a WMV9 -drm'd movie in linux using this code. We would have to decrypt the DRMd content somehow no? So now I assume that this is where the whole downloadable license thing comes into play. So let's say DVD-John 's algorithm downloads a license to play the drm'd file. What's to stop a rogue programmer from outputting the decrypted video stream to file ? I would have assumed the protection previosuly lied in Windows Media Player and its closed sourcebase preventing this option from becoming practical to a user. Now if we have the ability to play back DRM'd files as easily as I outlined it above, doesn't that completely destroy the ability of content producers to provide DRM'd content? Or is that exactly what RMS' point has been the last few years.

All this time I've assumed there was something big that I was missing in this whole DRM scheme . It seems totally inconceivable to me that Microsoft/Apple/Real/etc honestly believes that they can coax all content players to respect the content provider's wishes.

Re:Nice...

[Almost-Retired]

Uh, some of us sit around broswing Slashdot while we're watching football. I have the WVU/Pitt game on right now.

That includes me, experimenting with Ingo's new RT linux kernel patch. Unforch, there enough over head that tvtime loses a frame several times a second, duly reported in the log of course, so now its thursday and I have a 58 megabyte /var/log/messages.

Yeah, even us old farts take a chance on bleeding edge occasionally.

OTOH, tvtime is running 10x smoother than it does without the patch. The box is stable, and snappier than I expected, and snappier than if it was running a normal kernel by quite a bit.

Cheers, Gene

A step closer to breaking WMV DRM?

[sdo1]

Oh, I hope we're a step closer to freeing up DRM restricted WMV files and here's why...

I bought (as in I paid for) WMV files from MLB.com of this year's baseball playoffs because I didn't save my TiVo'd copies and wanted to have the games in my personal archive. At MLB.com, they used advertising verbiage like "watch them whenever you want!" and "burn them to CD!". Apparantly I didn't read the fine print close enough (or maybe it wasn't in the fine print), but those files are heavily DRM restricted. I have to be connected to the internet and log onto MLB.com to watch them. And even then, I can't even fast forward. Pathetic.

All I wanted to do was to convert them DVD-compatible MPEG2 for MY USE. I want to watch them on my TV instead of my computer. I paid for them and I should be able to view them somewhere other than my PC. I searched high and low and couldn't find a way to break the DRM. Sheesh, it's not like I'm trying to do anything that could be construed as illegal, at least by any rational person. Really frustrating.

If Jon's thing helps free these files in a way that will allow me to media-shift them, then I'm all for it! Even if it's not so I can watch them on Linux. Heck, I've had to use DeCSS to extract MPEG files from DVDs of MY OWN HOME VIDEOS because the original tapes were damaged. How pathetic is it that I needed a tool like that in order to view files that I and I alone own copyright on?

-S

Re:HDTV content

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Some HDTV quality video is only in WM9, and some HDTV-DVD's also.

Unfortunately, almost all of those are wrapped up in Microsoft's digital restriction mandates and thus won't play on linux even with DVD Jon's work here.

MS's DRM is particularly nasty because it enables "phone home" authorization just to play the video thus you end up with silliness like the HD-DVD release of Terminator 2 not working (without a proxy) outside of the US or Canada as well as HD movie trailers (not actual movies, just the "previews" for upcoming movies) phoning home each time you play them, allowing the movie studios to do god knows what with that information -- and you not to play them without an internet connection (and all the assorted risks that come with it).

Cannot connect to host.

[rice_burners_suck]

Dude, this site is all Slashcracked. How come /. doesn't have a Google-style cache (you could easily set it up using the Squid [squid-cache.org], with all links on the front page leading to the cache, rather than the original? Nobody would ever get /.ed that way.

If you're worried that owners of the linked sites won't get usage statistics, the cache could be set up to count how many times it was accessed, and the statistics could be emailed to the site owner. The email would look something like this:

To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
Subject: You were /.ed!
Date: Today

From the because-your-site-rocks-and-we-cached-the-damn-thi ng department:

Guess what? Your site was /.ed! But don't worry, our cache prevented millions of users from bringing your servers to their knees. Here are your usage statistics:

.
.
.
.

You get the idea.

Re:Hold on a second

[m50d]

Yes, it will be possible, just like there's a no-drm patch for xpdf. However, just like that patch, anyone publishing this player probably won't want to include the nodrm bit for fear of looking like a piracy tool, and I doubt studios will be worried about the few people who will put the effort into getting it. There's a cracker for wmv drm available anyway, that doesn't even use the keys.

Re:Go Jon!

[Tokerat]

Well, i guess I wasn't very clear seeing as i got modded +5 Funny and also judging by your response...

I've been working with computers for a while, I haven't done much recently due to unfortunate situations in my life. What I meant was this kid is cracking the DVD encryption, writing WMV codecs and the like...way beyond what my skill level ever was. I really am impressed.

(People like my parents who have trouble with using their digital cable box are the ones who say "computer genius", btw..I'm not award-winning or anything, by any means.)

Re:Mixed feelings

[arlandbayes]

There is no DMCA in Norway, and attempts to impose American law there have failed miserably

Wait until the Norway-USA FTA is imposed. Such an agreement will be sure to address Norway's appalling lack of anti-copyright-circumvention laws.

Re:Licensing Windows Media for Other Platforms

[Cid Highwind]

Imagine licensing the PANTONE system for the GIMP and delivering a product that is suitable for pre-press work today and not five years down the road.

Free-as-in-speech and free-as-in-beer are obsessions only within the open source community.

That's true. For the people who don't care about either of those there is Photoshop, which has already licensed Pantone, and is ready for prepress work today. Sure it's expensive, but hey, you don't care about free-as-in-beer anyway, right?

Without the code being free (as in beer and as in speech) there is zero added value in using The GIMP over Photoshop (or any other proprietary image editor).

No evidence?

[Ayanami Rei]

Oh, I don't know, what do you think? [chscene.ch]