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Encrypted DVDs to solve the screener problem?

17 June 2004 14:21 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny | 12 comments

Last year, a big controversy surrounded the MPAA's decision to ban all so-called "screener" DVDs. Screeners are pre-release versions of movies, sent out to critics and to people who are allowed to vote in various movie industry events, most notably in Academy Awards a.k.a. Oscars.

This year, it seems that DVD screeners can be brought back to critics and other special interest groups, by encrypting the DVDs so that they can be only opened with a special DVD players that support such encryption scheme.

The technology is developed by Dolby's subsdiary called Cinea and according to the company, "discs are encrypted using the AES 128-bit encryption standard. It's a National Security Agency-level standard, a world-class, state-of-the-art encryption standard".

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, says that they're having talks with individual studios whether they would support the technology or not. After a court order in last December, MPAA can't force studios to adopt the technology, but it is left to individual studios to decide whether they support the scheme or not.

Basically the encrypted discs would mean that if (and cynics would say, when) screener copies leak to the Net again, the only option is that someone who received an authorized screener DVD must have leaked it as the discs can't be given to friends or relatives as they don't have the equipment to play the discs (or copy the discs).

Oh, did you recognize the name of the company behind the scheme? Yes, the same guys who developed the original DIVX DRM-equipped DVD format (not to be confused with the DivX video codec)..

Source: Reuters

Permalink to this article

Actor fined over Oscar screener piracy (24 November 2004)

BAFTA voters to get secure DVD players (31 August 2004)

MPAA sues chipmakers (24 August 2004)

Man pleads guilty in Oscar screener case (13 April 2004)

Warner and Columbia sued actor over leaked screeners (29 January 2004)

Indie group wins screener ban battle (6 December 2003)

MPAA sued over DVD screener ban (25 November 2003)

MPAA: No screeners for other than Academy members (17 November 2003)

MPAA bans Oscar screeners (1 October 2003)

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Discuss this article!
pcshateme (Inactive) 17 June 2004 14:58
1st- encryption is made to be broken :) 2nd- well they could just get a macrovision removing scan converter ($30) and run it thru that into a computers video card. [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 17 June 2004 15:53
Quote: "discs are encrypted using the AES 128-bit encryption standard. It's a National Security Agency-level standard, a world-class, state-of-the-art encryption standard". Quote: Basically the encrypted discs would mean that if (and cynics would say, when) Screener copies leak to the Net again, the only option is that someone who received an authorized Screener DVD must have leaked it as the discs can't be given to friends or relatives as they don't have the equipment to play the discs (or copy the discs). hehe, encryption of that strength (according to the article, National Security Agency-level STANDARD, a world-class, state-of-the-art encryption STANDARD" Ummm, doesn't state-of-the-art mean the best? If thats true, how come its NSA-level standard? [ + quote]
pcshateme (Inactive) 17 June 2004 16:09
oooooooooo thats low man :) [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 17 June 2004 16:30
If this works... good for them, bad for us ;) [ + quote]
Buik (Member) 17 June 2004 17:10
Well, there goes the AES 128-bit encryption standard. They just invited a whole new class of code writers to overcome an obstacle. TC [ + quote]
JrIverson (Inactive) 17 June 2004 20:13
Every one should know that some one at some point will crack the encryption!!!! (I just hope it doesn't come down to me having to) :) [ + quote]
Praetor (Moderator) 17 June 2004 22:20
Quote: Ummm, doesn't state-of-the-art mean the best? If thats true, how come its NSA-level standard? Standard As an adjective, "Widely recognized or employed as a model of authority or excellence" as in a standard reference work (see http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=standard ) ASUS A7N8X-X, XP2500+ OC'd to XP3200+ Samsung 1024MB, PC2700 OC'd to PC3200 480GB [3x160GB, 7200, 8MB] EVGA, GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB Rules and Policies: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487 [ + quote]
sillyd (Inactive) 18 June 2004 2:59
Bring it on [ + quote]
OzMick (Inactive) 20 June 2004 17:29
Ha. Fact of the matter is, that if the disc can be read in any means, it can be copied. All it will eventually come down to is someone getting their hands on a legitimate machine/software and writing a program to emulate it. I shudder to think how much time and money has been wasted on this whole issue by the MPAA... and it all ends up being thwarted by a couple of motivated souls anyway. [ + quote]
JrIverson (Inactive) 20 June 2004 18:49
Me and my friends will be those motivated souls since we know people to which the company (or whoever sends them) sends those discs to. [ + quote]
pcshateme (Inactive) 20 June 2004 18:54
/me predicts within a few weeks someone will crack it, and post it all over the internet for everone else to see. [ + quote]
JrIverson (Inactive) 20 June 2004 19:04
Like I said earlier might be me doin that!!! [ + quote]