http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02...sion_ripguard/
Macrovision to tout lock-down DVD tech
By Tony Smith (tony.smith at theregister.co.uk)
Published Tuesday 15th February 2005 12:25 GMT
Update Anti-rip software company Macrovision will today claim it can
prevent almost all attempts to copy movie DVDs on a PC.
The new technology, dubbed RipGuard DVD, prevents ripper software from
working. It isn't fully effective, Macrovision admits, but with a
claimed effectiveness rate of 97 per cent, the technique should act as
a major disincentive for casual copiers, the company believes.
Click Here
Unsurprisingly, Macrovision is cautious about giving too much away,
but the company did indicate that RipGuard is integrated into the disc
itself rather than software installed automatically when a protected
disc if first used in a PC.
The company's CD copy-protection system, CDS 300, introduces noise
into the audio data in an attempt to fool PC CD drives but leave
consumer CD players, with their complex error correction technology,
unaffected. RipGuard may use a similar approach, but as Macrovision
found with CDS, there is resistance among some user groups to such a
system because of concerns that the technique reduces disc longevity.
Since it's already coping with CDS-inserted errors in the data, the
argument runs, any player's error correction system will have less
headroom to deal with errors arising from scratches and dirt on the
disc's surface. In other words, the disc can take fewer knocks and
bumps before becoming unplayable.
That's even more true of DVDs, which are inherently less robust than
CDs, and will be considerably more so for upcoming digital video disc
formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, because they cram even more
data into the medium.
Macrovision has said it's deprecating the use of such techniques
within CDS in favour of software-based anti-copy solutions. But
RipGuard does not use embedded player software. According to
Macrovision, it uses a "format-based Unique Digital Framework to each
protected DVD5 or DVD9 title", allowing protected discs to continue to
work in consumer DVD players and legitimate computer-based DVD
playback applications.
Whatever tricks the company uses, it's likely to gain strong support
from the movie industry, which has been hurting ever since its Content
Scrambling System (CSS), the encryption system developed to protect
DVD content, was broken earlier this decade.
Adam Gervin, senior marketing director with Macrovision's
entertainment technologies group, cited
(
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1764945,00.asp) by
ExtremeTech, told consumers to look for Motion Picture Ass. of America
(MPAA) members to adopt "complete DVD protection" this year as studios
incorporate both RipGuard and Macrovision's established analog
copy-protection systems.
RipGuard DVD is available today in "select replication facilities",
with general availability expected in Q2, Macrovision said.
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_
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