Re: [dvd-discuss] Technology Admin comments

[Sham Gardner <mail(at)risctaker.inka.de>]

On Mon, Jul 15, 2002 at 07:34:58AM -0700, Glendon M. Gross wrote:
> Doesn't this technology have the potential to engender a black market in the
> "Recoding" of DVD titles?   While I am
> mildly sympathetic to concerns about piracy of large numbers of DVD's and
> remarketing them in a different region,
> I also suspect that the DeCSS may actually facilitate a new kind of piracy
> by providing a motive for "crackers"

Here we go again...

Decrypting a CSSed DVD is *totally unnecessary* for large scale piracy. A
CSSed DVD can be copied bit-for-bit and the copy will be *identical* to the
original, CSS, playability in sanctioned readers and all.

The region mask is a single byte in an IFO file. IFO files are not
encrypted, so finding it and changing it in an otherwise bit-for-bit copy
also doesn't require a CSS descrambler.

Incidentally the same goes for Macrovision settings, which are located near
the beginning of certain VOB packets, thereby also "escaping" encryption.

-- 
http://sites.inka.de/risctaker/DeCSS/

"Any time you skip a commercial [...] you're actually stealing the
 programming." (James Kellner, CEO Turner Broadcasting)