BackupHDDVD creator speaks out
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 27th 2007 11:30AM
posted Jan 27th 2007 11:30AM
Just about everyone and their respective grandmothers have now gotten a whiff of this whole "BackupHDDVD" thing that's been floating around, as muslix64 was able to break down the HD DVD content protection and allow folks to sidestep the AACS boundaries. The folks over at Slyck sat down to chat with the infamous hacker about his motives, his work, and the obligatory "hopes and dreams," and as we expected, he's simply yet another (albeit intelligent and determined) individual that's frustrated with the limitations that DRM presents. He refers to himself as simply an "upset customer" looking to "enforce fair use," further explaining that he wasn't able to appropriately play back an HD DVD film that he purchased "on a non-HDCP HD monitor." He also said that his success with HD DVD led to his shared efforts while taking down Blu-ray's content protection, and noted that any stronger protection to limit the abilities of purchased media would likely be "too costly to manufacture." Lastly, he showed a bit of humbleness by admitting that he "probably wasn't the first to do this," and suggested that the ones before him probably just kept quiet, but his overriding purpose with all of this is to simply "enforce fair use, not piracy" and to "benefit the consumers." Sure, there are certainly polarized camps when it comes to breaking down content protection, but before jumping to any conclusions, be sure to hit the read link and read the full dialogue.
No hes not. I remember seeing a HD-DVD torrent on the pirate bay a few months ago.
What other people do with BackupHDDVD is not really muslix64's problem. If some pirates want to put some HD DVD movies onto BitTorrent tracker sites, that's the pirate's problem for breaking the law.
Personally, I think that Hollywood is already rich enough to afford to let people download some movies. After I download something (esp. illegally), I listen/watch it to make sure it's something that I would support the artist for. If it is, I'll buy it.
I meant that he was not the first one to crack the code. I did not mean that he is supporting piracy. I should have made that clearer.
muslix64 excuse as to why he hacked HD DVD's and Blu Ray's content protection is so lame. With the amount of time and money he invested in hacking HD DVD and Blu Ray he could have bought a nice HDCP compliant monitor/tv.
Dave A. are you willing to work for free next year (as in not getting paid) just because you've always been paid each and every year? I didn't think so... Anyway, people work to get paid. Companies make/produce things to make money. Simple as that.
you mean like this torrent?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8622.html
ripped using BackupHDDVD...
...the program muslix64 wrote
he is the first one, i think you are mistaken
this is bullshit that every time i go out to buy a movie i have to rip it and do all this crap just to enjoy it properly
Screw you MPAA
I think *AA's are all full of shit and selling overpriced (mostly) crap on a bad business model. As sites like Myspace show, you can cut out the middle man almost entirely. They feel their time running out.
But, the reality is right now they see the movies as their intellectual property to protect. So these ever more draconian restrictions exist. Not that they will ever deter skilled coders, but that's not the point. The point is to make it harder for casual people. Eg compare the difficulty of cracking HD-DVD to five years ago, ripping a Cd and putting the mp3 in your napster folder. It's just like why you have a lock on the door of your house. A determined and skilled thief can break in, always. But it's different than having the door wide open so the two-bit, sometimes crook walks in and out with a shopping carts.
Btw, I am not calling people who want to rip/archive dvds/CDs thieves.
The old HD-DVD torrents were HD movies saved from chinese HDTV sources, not ripped from HD-DVD discs.
God bless Java.
Considering the vast majority of people that will download this program will use it to pirate/steal and that this individual is well aware of this, he is in fact supporting theft. While I imagine he feels all noble for doing it, it doesn't change the reality of it.
I'm very anti-DRM too and all, but the last I heard NONE of the distributors were enabling the HDCP token on their movies right now. If that's the case, how could the copy protection have prevented him from viewing a "purchased" HD-DVD on a legit player? Maybe I'm missing something...
Your wrong, if you come at this thing at the angle that DRM is to protect from piracy it’s really not. Sure it helps, but piracy will always find a way.. DRM is for new and really annoying revenue streams. I way to charge for the same IP but on different mediums. MPAA tried to steal from us first I just see this as fair play.
i find the 'fighting DRM' angle fake. You fight it by not purchasing a disc or HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drive. Or is Hollywood content just too enticing?
"We want freedom by any means nessescary"
"I'm very anti-DRM too and all, but the last I heard NONE of the distributors were enabling the HDCP token on their movies right now. If that's the case, how could the copy protection have prevented him from viewing a "purchased" HD-DVD on a legit player? Maybe I'm missing something..."
Yeah you are missing something. If your playing back on a PC then, even though the ICT isn't enabled, the player software (PowerDVD, WinDVD) demends that you have: 1.) An HDCP video card, 2.) an HDCP moniter and 3.) HDCP enabled drivers before it will play back that HD-DVD/Blue ray disc.
So yeah, thats how it could have prevented him from watching a movie a legally owned if his moniter was a digital moniter (not a CRT) and it didn't have HDCP.
I am totally for DRM-less content and defeating all this copy-protection... and I'm one who purchases DVD's frequently and will purchase HD movies when the right movies are released. I want to be able to have choices on how to display and archive purchased content for whole house access.