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>Just like most DRM schemes ... offload the responsibilities Funny you mention this. I remember a senior staffer at a large games publisher talking about this

>Just like most DRM schemes ... offload the responsibilities Funny you mention this. I remember a senior staffer at a large games publisher talking about this back in the late 00's. He said, quite candidly, that all of the execs at EA, Activision etc. all knew that technology like SecuROM was incredibly ineffective at reducing piracy. They all paid millions of dollars in licence fees to use it, though, so that they when an investor asked them what they were doing to protect their IP, they had a "good" answer.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
Checkbox compliance is everywhere!
judge2020 4y ago
I think investors weren't too slow to realize this was happening, though, and it's part of the reason why microtransaction-funded online games are loads more profitable and prioritized.
gjsman-1000 4y ago
And in the movie world, look at Blu-ray. HDCP (for HDMI Cable Encryption), versions 1.4 (1080p) and 2.2 (4K). BD+ (a literal VM running on the player to correct intentionally erroneous data on the disc), AACS v1 and v2 (tons of keys, player keys, device keys, permanent revocation lists, even traitor-tracing), Cinavia (audio watermarking to detect whether AACS is present), and Drive Bus Authentication (no unauthorized players can talk to the drive). AACS was supposed to last years. HDCP, indefinitely. BD+, the creators thought it would last a decade at least. Cinavia? They thought it would never be removable. Drive Bus Encryption? Almost impossible they thought. All of these technologies were defeated about ~2 years after their introduction. Some had minor updates breaking things for a little bit, but were broken again shortly later. And some are only partially broken (not enough to make your own player), but in practice broken enough where you can rip the disc which is all most people want.
- jamiek88 4y ago
  Yep and there’s always the analog loophole in the interim.
  - gjsman-1000 4y ago
    Well... they tried to patch that by locking the analog outputs on Blu-ray players to 960x540 (slightly better than DVD quality), and by removing the analog outputs entirely in 2013 on all new players after that point. However... even the best intentions went awry after the first Blu-ray player software for PC was released with the flaw of allowing Print Screen to capture frames. Which caused people to quickly figure out they could run a script using Print Screen to capture all the frames, while having their audio-out headphone jack connected with a male-male 3.5mm cable straight into Line In. No real hacks necessary! This was, of course, patched by blacklisting the player key and rolling out new keys in updated player software (to render new discs unplayable without an update) but it was a major oversight. ;)
- hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago
  If you look at console copy protection, the controls are slowly getting better, presumably the same will happen with content control. I guess the key difference is console protection is about preventing the masses and content protection is about preventing any single failure.
  - tshaddox 4y ago
    Content protection isn’t about preventing any single failure. The actual purpose of most video and audio DRM gets missed by a lot of people. The purpose is for content owners to exert control over device manufacturers and content distribution services. It’s completely irrelevant if anyone can easily go to a torrent site and download your movie. You still get to use the legal system to force device manufacturers and distribution services to do whatever you want them to do in order to be able to play your content.
    - gjsman-1000 4y ago

toomuchtodo 4y ago

Checkbox compliance is everywhere!

judge2020 4y ago

I think investors weren't too slow to realize this was happening, though, and it's part of the reason why microtransaction-funded online games are loads more profitable and prioritized.

gjsman-1000 4y ago

And in the movie world, look at Blu-ray. HDCP (for HDMI Cable Encryption), versions 1.4 (1080p) and 2.2 (4K). BD+ (a literal VM running on the player to correct intentionally erroneous data on the disc), AACS v1 and v2 (tons of keys, player keys, device keys, permanent revocation lists, even traitor-tracing), Cinavia (audio watermarking to detect whether AACS is present), and Drive Bus Authentication (no unauthorized players can talk to the drive). AACS was supposed to last years. HDCP, indefinitely. BD+, the creators thought it would last a decade at least. Cinavia? They thought it would never be removable. Drive Bus Encryption? Almost impossible they thought. All of these technologies were defeated about ~2 years after their introduction. Some had minor updates breaking things for a little bit, but were broken again shortly later. And some are only partially broken (not enough to make your own player), but in practice broken enough where you can rip the disc which is all most people want.

jamiek88 4y ago
Yep and there’s always the analog loophole in the interim.
- gjsman-1000 4y ago
  Well... they tried to patch that by locking the analog outputs on Blu-ray players to 960x540 (slightly better than DVD quality), and by removing the analog outputs entirely in 2013 on all new players after that point. However... even the best intentions went awry after the first Blu-ray player software for PC was released with the flaw of allowing Print Screen to capture frames. Which caused people to quickly figure out they could run a script using Print Screen to capture all the frames, while having their audio-out headphone jack connected with a male-male 3.5mm cable straight into Line In. No real hacks necessary! This was, of course, patched by blacklisting the player key and rolling out new keys in updated player software (to render new discs unplayable without an update) but it was a major oversight. ;)
hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago
If you look at console copy protection, the controls are slowly getting better, presumably the same will happen with content control. I guess the key difference is console protection is about preventing the masses and content protection is about preventing any single failure.
- tshaddox 4y ago
  Content protection isn’t about preventing any single failure. The actual purpose of most video and audio DRM gets missed by a lot of people. The purpose is for content owners to exert control over device manufacturers and content distribution services. It’s completely irrelevant if anyone can easily go to a torrent site and download your movie. You still get to use the legal system to force device manufacturers and distribution services to do whatever you want them to do in order to be able to play your content.
  - gjsman-1000 4y ago