From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Wed Jun 09 1999 - 20:32:30 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> Brian Atkins <brian@posthuman.com> wrote:
> > Maybe related: there is an ad in the latest Wired for csafe.com
> >
> > Purports to allow for safe posting of copyrighted images, plus
> > a purchase option. Requires user to download an ActiveX or
> > Netscape plugin.
>
> Ridiculous. You can do a screen copy, capture the data with a sniffer as it
> downloads, run your terminal output to a recording device, take a photograph
> of the screen, do a memory dump, reprogram the plug-in on their own machine,
> etc. All this scheme will do is prevent your browser from helping you steal
> the images. Anybody in control of their own computer can get to their own
> memory, their own disk, or their own screen. As a security professional, I
> consider these kinds of schemes bordering on the fraudulent.
Well they are making at least a bit of effort: the data
stream is encrypted. The main missing pieces are still:
recording screen images to tape or photograph, mem dump, screen
capture via running Windows on an emulator. Since recording
to tape or photo involves a digital->analog conversion, let's
throw that out since you effectively do not have the original
data. (actually of course even a monitor display is analog
unless you're using a flatpanel with a digital interface)
Anyway, if this ever got to the point where it was distributed
with the browsers or built-in, then I could see many web
sites switching to it in order to prevent a lot of casual
theft.
This same problem is also being worked on in the audio/MP3
arena; I wonder how that new SDMI (correct acronym?) is going
to try to handle it.
-- Join the ExI/>H SETI team today: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_show&id=393------------------------------------------------------------------- "It IS possible." - Vincent, _Gattaca_
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