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Digital cinema tech here. Sony hasn’t been releasing updates since they exited the business in 2020. This is likely an expired certificate related to the encr

Digital cinema tech here. Sony hasn’t been releasing updates since they exited the business in 2020. This is likely an expired certificate related to the encryption on the movie files.

crazygringo 3y ago
Are certificates usually/often issued to expire at the end of a given calendar year? On the one hand, that would explain this happening on Dec 31. But it's slightly weird because it's not yet the new year in UTC. This was posted several hours before that happening, and we've still got over 2 hours to go... (And the cinema is in New York, with almost 8 hours to go in local time, so it's not a local timezone issue either.)
- userbinator 3y ago
  This is Sony, and it is the new year in Japan.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Sony is a Japanese company but it's also a multinational company consisting of hundreds of companies they aquired over the years all over the globe. It's therefore a relatively small chance is has something to do with Japan specifically.
    - swells34 3y ago
      It likely depends on where the programmer who has the original cert issued was... so quite likely Japan, given the evidence
      - joseph8th 3y ago
        This is the most likely, yup. The certs are unlikely to have a precise end-of-year expiration. It will be whatever the expiration is for the last certs loaded. 10 years in cinema IoT, here. Features are encrypted by Key Delivery Messages (KDM), and those are per cinema server/projector "marriage". No KDM will be considered valid if the server certs are expired. This should make 2024 interesting for me.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    (fyi)Japan Standard Time(JST) is UTC+9, single zone and no DST. Not sure of absolute time but Tweet is showing "Jan 1, 2024 at 2:19" timestamp on my JST phone.
- mistermo 3y ago
  The Dolby/Doremi servers certificate ended the Dec 31 too. Our maintenance subcontractor updated them few weeks ago. SO I guess it is common for the industry. Then it is an industry which often play 365d/year so, it's just another sunday/monday. (Add to this our weeks doesn't start Sunday/Monday, but Wednesday for France by example, and Friday for the US, day of the release of new movies)
dn3500 3y ago
A digital cinema tech with the username "sprocket35"?
- firtoz 3y ago
  There have been stranger things
- Aloha 3y ago
  I mean his comment history is on par with who he says he is - I think it's a great name. Just because I work mostly in the digital domain doesn't mean I dont long for the analog.
saghm 3y ago
Honestly, is that better? Leaving all the devices set to EOL and get bricked or whatever feels pretty wasteful.
- sprocket35 3y ago
  The studios set the requirements. A certificate that never expires would never fly with their need to control DRM as tightly as possible. If Sony was still in the business, they would offer a certificate renewal for a small fee like the other manufacturers have done. The root problem is that Sony exited the market and left a lot of cinema owners out to dry with the looming cost of $50,000+ per auditorium for replacement projectors.
  - userbinator 3y ago
    IMHO a certificate that expires at the same time as the copyright on a film, and DRM that then "fails open", makes the most sense.
    - nagisa 3y ago
      Not for the studios. There’s nothing more they would love than to get a continuous and non-ending stream of money for content they themselves have forgotten about owning.
    - coder543 3y ago
      Okay, then I set the date on my computer to year the 2124. Now the DRM is unlocked! You can't build a "time lock" with just encryption primitives. Even if you could build a time lock with just encryption primitives, we don't know when the copyright will expire until the original author has died, since copyright term is life + 70 years. Someone would have to run a server that specifically chooses to start serving the keys on that date, which is an absurd notion given how absurdly long copyright lasts these days. If the federal government were interested in passing a law that required this, I'm sure the Library of Congress could run such a server, but no such law exists.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
fostware 3y ago
I'm surprised they even allow a certificate greater than 13 months /s
ksec 3y ago
Any insight as to why they exited the movie projector business? I am also pretty sure they will honour any maintain contract?
- sprocket35 3y ago
  They left because their liquid crystal panels suffered from chronic burn-in and the cost of replacing them was no longer economically feasible. It was tolerable when “virtual print fees” were subsidizing the transition from 35mm film to digital but now that era is over and movie theaters owners are smart enough to buy DLP projectors which don’t suffer from the burn in problem.

Digital cinema tech here. Sony hasn’t been releasing updates since they exited the business in 2020. This is likely an expired certificate related to the encryption on the movie files.

crazygringo 3y ago

Are certificates usually/often issued to expire at the end of a given calendar year? On the one hand, that would explain this happening on Dec 31. But it's slightly weird because it's not yet the new year in UTC. This was posted several hours before that happening, and we've still got over 2 hours to go... (And the cinema is in New York, with almost 8 hours to go in local time, so it's not a local timezone issue either.)

userbinator 3y ago
This is Sony, and it is the new year in Japan.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  Sony is a Japanese company but it's also a multinational company consisting of hundreds of companies they aquired over the years all over the globe. It's therefore a relatively small chance is has something to do with Japan specifically.
  - swells34 3y ago
    It likely depends on where the programmer who has the original cert issued was... so quite likely Japan, given the evidence
    - joseph8th 3y ago
      This is the most likely, yup. The certs are unlikely to have a precise end-of-year expiration. It will be whatever the expiration is for the last certs loaded. 10 years in cinema IoT, here. Features are encrypted by Key Delivery Messages (KDM), and those are per cinema server/projector "marriage". No KDM will be considered valid if the server certs are expired. This should make 2024 interesting for me.
- numpad0 3y ago
  (fyi)Japan Standard Time(JST) is UTC+9, single zone and no DST. Not sure of absolute time but Tweet is showing "Jan 1, 2024 at 2:19" timestamp on my JST phone.
mistermo 3y ago
The Dolby/Doremi servers certificate ended the Dec 31 too. Our maintenance subcontractor updated them few weeks ago. SO I guess it is common for the industry. Then it is an industry which often play 365d/year so, it's just another sunday/monday. (Add to this our weeks doesn't start Sunday/Monday, but Wednesday for France by example, and Friday for the US, day of the release of new movies)

dn3500 3y ago

A digital cinema tech with the username "sprocket35"?

firtoz 3y ago
There have been stranger things
Aloha 3y ago
I mean his comment history is on par with who he says he is - I think it's a great name. Just because I work mostly in the digital domain doesn't mean I dont long for the analog.

saghm 3y ago

Honestly, is that better? Leaving all the devices set to EOL and get bricked or whatever feels pretty wasteful.

sprocket35 3y ago
The studios set the requirements. A certificate that never expires would never fly with their need to control DRM as tightly as possible. If Sony was still in the business, they would offer a certificate renewal for a small fee like the other manufacturers have done. The root problem is that Sony exited the market and left a lot of cinema owners out to dry with the looming cost of $50,000+ per auditorium for replacement projectors.
- userbinator 3y ago
  IMHO a certificate that expires at the same time as the copyright on a film, and DRM that then "fails open", makes the most sense.
  - nagisa 3y ago
    Not for the studios. There’s nothing more they would love than to get a continuous and non-ending stream of money for content they themselves have forgotten about owning.
  - coder543 3y ago
    Okay, then I set the date on my computer to year the 2124. Now the DRM is unlocked! You can't build a "time lock" with just encryption primitives. Even if you could build a time lock with just encryption primitives, we don't know when the copyright will expire until the original author has died, since copyright term is life + 70 years. Someone would have to run a server that specifically chooses to start serving the keys on that date, which is an absurd notion given how absurdly long copyright lasts these days. If the federal government were interested in passing a law that required this, I'm sure the Library of Congress could run such a server, but no such law exists.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

fostware 3y ago

I'm surprised they even allow a certificate greater than 13 months /s

ksec 3y ago

Any insight as to why they exited the movie projector business? I am also pretty sure they will honour any maintain contract?

sprocket35 3y ago
They left because their liquid crystal panels suffered from chronic burn-in and the cost of replacing them was no longer economically feasible. It was tolerable when “virtual print fees” were subsidizing the transition from 35mm film to digital but now that era is over and movie theaters owners are smart enough to buy DLP projectors which don’t suffer from the burn in problem.