Professor Ed Felten writes about how HDCP Could Have Been Better, primarily by using well-known but more secure cryptography rather than a homebrew algorithm. He points out that the reason the flawed HDCP algorithm is being used may be due to a requirement of a very small gate count for the silicon implementations.
We (the public) should be glad that they are using a flawed implementation, as it will facilitate construction of devices to thwart HDCP and restore some of our fair use rights. For instance, HDCP devices will not allow the use of full resolution of a non-HDCP monitor, by downsampling the video. There’s no legal requirement to do this; it’s simply an attempt to close the so-called “analog hole”. In other words, Hollywood assumes that we’re all a bunch of copyright infringers and makes our viewing experience worse, while in fact having no measurable effect on actual copyright infringement.
Just say no to Digital Restrictions Management!
HDCP Could Have Been Better
Professor Ed Felten writes about how HDCP Could Have Been Better, primarily by using well-known but more secure cryptography rather than a homebrew algorithm. He points out that the reason the flawed HDCP algorithm is being used may be due to a requirement of a very small gate count for the silicon implementations.
We (the public) should be glad that they are using a flawed implementation, as it will facilitate construction of devices to thwart HDCP and restore some of our fair use rights. For instance, HDCP devices will not allow the use of full resolution of a non-HDCP monitor, by downsampling the video. There’s no legal requirement to do this; it’s simply an attempt to close the so-called “analog hole”. In other words, Hollywood assumes that we’re all a bunch of copyright infringers and makes our viewing experience worse, while in fact having no measurable effect on actual copyright infringement.
Just say no to Digital Restrictions Management!