An Indian Researcher, Debasis Mohanty has beaten what Microsoft called its "impenetrable" Windows Genuine Advantage. Windows Genuine Advantage is designed to keep tabs on consumers determining whether they are running a legit copy of Windows or a pirated copy. If running a pirated copy, a consumer may be restricted from downloading software from Microsoft's main download site.
Using a secondary Microsoft validation tool, genuinecheck.exe, he says he has made it possible for people running pirated copies of Windows to trick the safeguard mechanism and get access to content that is set aside for genuine installations only. Currently a validation check on the website is voluntary but the company has said it will probably become mandatory eventually.
Source:
rediff

This is a 3-Disc set. All three discs play fine in my two set-top DVD players, but disc # 2 is utterly unrecognizeable in my burner. (An LG model).
The other two discs are recognized immediately by the burner, and rip perfectly, but disc # 2 is a flat-out NO-GO. The burner's front-panel LED flashes incessantly as it scrambles to make heads-or-tails of the disc. Then it just spits out an error mesage.
IN FACT - I even booted into DOS (from a floppy) *directly* (bypassing windows altogether, and any DRM initiatives that might be hiding within it).
Disc # 2 would STILL not be recognized! (The other two were fine and were recognized immediately, even in DOS). This narrowed down the problem considerably.
NO WHERE on the discs' packaging does it mention that we have a "bastard" (copy-protected) disc on our hands.
To add to my misery, I was once reading on some web-site-or-other, a list of current burner manufacturers who support DRM. Unfortunately, LG was among them.
In other words, I have found that IF a) there is a "DRM" flag on any given disc, and b) IF a burner incorporates a chip that can detect this flag, THEN...
The disc cannot be read by that burner. No ripping, no copying, no back-up.
So..... what to do? I have run across more and more and more of these discs lately. (Simpson's, Columbo...). 20th Century Fox is a main offender, followed by Universal Pictures. More are sure to follow. (These are Region 1 discs).
But anyway, a gent somwhere else in these forums suggested I try to find an older (pre-DRM) DVD-Rom, and try to rip from that. So yesterday I popped into a local computer shop and bought two discontinued (used-but-tested) DVD readers for only $20 each. An old Hitachi and an old Afreey model, each manufactured in 1999.
In each case, I just unplugged the LG burner's ribbon cable and substituted the new (old) drives.
THEY BOTH INSTANTLY RECOGNIZED MASH DISC # 2, and I got *perfect* rips with DVD-Decrypter!!!
So f-i-n-a-l-l-y, that clinches it! Mystery over. Newly-made burners contain that miserable, wretched DRM Chip. It wouldn't matter if you or I were using Linux in this case - the crippling occurs because of a covert (SNEAKY) unnanounced implementation of DRM. It is a behind-the-scenes, sleazy hidden agreement between the movie (and TV) studios and the hardware manufacturers.
Bye-bye "Fair Right's Use".
OH well........ if anyone else has had the same kind of exasperating problem, (non-recognizable) dvds, I urge them to do the same as I have done. While they are still available, you might want to quickly get your hands on a spare DRM-free DVD-Rom or two.
Mr. Movies !!!! (How ya been, big guy?)
Best to all ..... Mike.












