Re: Napster: thoughts and comments?

From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 12:41:41 MDT


"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> > And no digital format will ever be "secure" except on
> > secure hardware, and even that is dubious.
>
> Actually, no. If the file is encrypted such that each successive play requires a
> new key to decrypt, which must be downloaded from the recording company's
> keyserver on a pay per play basis (i.e. no key can be used twice on the same
> downloaded file), then you have a very secure file format.

But not completely secure. Make a backup of the file (and any
associated data, like hidden files or Windows registry keys) before you
play it, download the key to another file, trick the player into
"downloading" the key from the file rather than the company, then copy
the backup over the original, and there's your crack. (If the key
depends on the time as reported by the local computer, then trick the
player into thinking it's always the same moment. If the key depends on
the time as reported by the company's server, that can be specified as
part of the served key; it's no problem if the local computer and the
company's server have way out of sync clocks).



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