Digg.com revolt over HD DVD key

[FaisonMars]

Wow, take a look at digg.com tonight. The users are going nuts over the censorship of the HD DVD key that was cracked way back in February. It seems that this is being interpreted as a sell-out, since HD DVD is a sponsor of the digg podcast.

Digg always seemed to me to be at least partly based on a cult of personality around Kevin Rose... betrayed nerds are now biting back?

 

[cyborg]

hex09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0

Just because it has to be said.

 

[jnelso99]

Is this controversy anything like the DeCSS thing from a while back?

I tried to follow this HD-DVD thing on the Doom9 forums, started copying some code to play with, but then figured it wasn't worth it since I don't plan on ever owning any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray things until I have to (plus, it's pretty far over my head).

 

[Cosmo]

I blogged about this, making myself the latest in a long series of blog posts in support of the 'revolution'.

Digg, incidentally, has apparently had enough. They've taken their site completely offline with the message "We'll be back shortly".

 

[aerosolben]

Digg, incidentally, has apparently had enough. They've taken their site completely offline with the message "We'll be back shortly".

Digg appears to be back online - good luck finding any links that aren't the HD-DVD code.

 

[a_unique_person]

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

Heh.

 

[Brian Jackson]

Not to be a complete moron, but how does one use this code to "crack" an HD-DVD? Is it something you feed into a DVD-Ripper program or something? I'm truly curious.

 

[geni]

Not to be a complete moron, but how does one use this code to "crack" an HD-DVD? Is it something you feed into a DVD-Ripper program or something? I'm truly curious.

Ok first you need a HD-DVD published before april 23rd. Second you need an AACS decrypter. BackupHDDVD and derivatives appear to be the most popular at the moment. You then feed the key into AACS decrypter which it can then use to extract the title key from the HD-DVD. You can then decrypt and copy the HD-DVD.

Of course the reality is a bit more complex.

 

[aerosolben]

Not to be a complete moron, but how does one use this code to "crack" an HD-DVD? Is it something you feed into a DVD-Ripper program or something? I'm truly curious.

HD-DVD content is encrypted - basically, a key is necessary to transform the content from a meaningless stream of bits into the protected content. Any software wishing to read the HD-DVD must have access a key.

Once decrypted, one merely needs to know the structural specification for HD-DVD (which is probably published, and if not, is likely easy to get via brute force) in order get a 'movie'.

More details in the HD-DVD wiki article.

ETA: Too slow.

 

[Brian Jackson]

Thanks, guys. I get it now.