[MPlayer-users] [OT] AC3 vs. DTS

[Giacomo Comes]

> > Anyway I read what you wrote. I just want to remember you that CSS
> > was not cracked in no time. It took some years after the introduction of
> > the DVD technology, and the crackers succeed because they found a key not 
> > obfuscated in a software player.
> 
> DVD was cracked way before DVD drives were common in computers. Before
> that, there was really very little motivation:
> 
> 1. Compression software and bandwidth for distributing movies over the
>    net were severely lacking at the time, so the warez scene had
>    little motive. Most people were sharing analog-captured .asf and
>    .rm files if anything at all.. :)
> 
> 2. Since few computers had DVD drives, no one cared if they could play
>    their DVDs on their non-windows computer.
> 
> The digital media scene on the net is much more developed now, and I'm
> confident that competent people will attack whatever new crap they
> throw at us quickly and liberate it as well.
> 
> > In your statement you say that knowing a key "will make the cryptography
> > be cracked in no time"
> > That's only valid if the encryption algorithm is weak.
> 
> No, this statement is blatently false. Assuming you know the key (or
> have it somewhere and just haven't found it), the only factors making
> it difficult to crack the 'protection' are the level of obfuscation of
> the key and the level of obfuscation of the encryption (i.e. using an
> encryption method that's not well-known). Both of these are matters of
> security through obscurity. The weakness or strength of the encryption
> itself is always irrelevant when the only security comes from
> obscurity.

Now let't talk about defeating a protection.
You say that it took same time to break CSS because <your arguments>.

Well let's take another example. What about CPPM? It's around since
5 years. It is an improvement on CSS. The keys are on the disk.
Why it has not been cracked yet (and I KNOW that it has been recently
compromised)? Because nobody cares about music? 
The reality is that obfuscation cannot be consideres good security,
but it will serve the purpose of the industry for enough time.

When the new HD DVD format will be available, do you really expect that
the next day all the computers will be equipped with the new HDDVD drive
and after two weeks the protection will be defeated?
I don't expect that. I expect the same several years long process.

But in this matter, nothing can be taken for sure. I can be wrong and
you right, the fact is that there is no way to really anticipate 
the future in this field.

Giacomo