uninnovate.com — It's been well reported that Amazon's Unbox video service won't let you play your movies on your DVD player or let friends borrow them. But did you know that the license agreement lets Amazon remotely delete all of your movies off of your computer for any reason it wants without notifying you? And that is just the beginning. It gets much worse!
Sep 9, 2006 View in Crawl 4
headzooSep 9, 2006
If the current reports are true, this is a glimpse of what we'll be seeing with Vista once it hits the store shelves. But it'll be worse, since this kind of remote controlled DRM enforcement will be built into the core of the OS.
lumirasSep 10, 2006
They're not going to come to your house and delete the files from your hard drive, you idiot.If they're going to have a system like this, they probably have these files set up so that their liscenses have to renew every so often. If they don't want you to have the videos, they'll just revoke the liscense, and the next time your computer checks in with the service, the files will probably become corrupted and unplayableBut, again, like I said.......if you read just about any liscense agreement for digital downloads, you'll just see more of the same of this stuff. It doesn't mean that they're going to do it, but they do have the power to
krinthekuzSep 10, 2006
@babblingdo you know anything about crypto? anything based on a key, even one-way hashing, is brute forceable. what's even better is the rainbow crack method (which is used now to beat lm and md5 passwords, and the concept is quite old). the defense to rainbow crack is to use a seed. however, if there are 2 passwords available, you can figure out what the seed is, regardless of whether it's function generated or just a static string.as long as we use our current concept of crypto, anything that is encrypted will be crackable.and if you think brute forcing takes forever, google "project rainbow crack". a regular PC can crack basic passwords in seconds, with harder passwords in minutes.
klangSep 10, 2006
wallclimber: I was a prefered customer at Amazon one year.. Got the christmas present and everything. Then they changed something in their system, so I had to pay "List price" instead of "our price" + my country's VAT instead of following the "low or no VAT on books" rule they have in England .. That is 6 years ago .. I am not a customer, let alone a prefered customer anymore. I am signed up though, just to make make them wonder how they lost me.Silence sometimes speaks louder than words, but .. you have a moral obligation to prevent any friend or family from using this service. Reconfigure their firewall if you have to! :-)
ccanni1028Sep 10, 2006
Out the wazoo, then back in the other side. Double rape!This almost sounds like a security liability. *cough*SonyRootKits*cough*
drfighterSep 10, 2006
This reminds me of Sony's copy protection- except, unlike Sony, the EULA says exactly what the software is going to do and there is currently no rootkit, but that could change. the EULA says they could update the software and change the agreement so I wouldn't be surprised they start using them.Personally, I'm so sick of DRM that being a pirate seems more and more appealing each day. I can handle the malware that gets onto my computer and I can also hide my IP address.
Closed AccountSep 10, 2006
This service is awful. No wonder all the PC fanboys love it.
anotherbrianSep 11, 2006
Encryption can be unbreakable, if buy unbreakable you mean it takes billions of years to brute force the keys. DRM is always breakable because the keys are in the message. DVDs are easy because the decryption keys are in the clear on the disk that leaves their 'sphere of control'.
jtothewSep 11, 2006
The FBI needs to improve there web design.
jcdickersonSep 11, 2006
COUGHFairUse4WM1.2COUGH
wooterySep 16, 2006
Remember that the key MS uses to sign Xbox executables hasn't been brute forced, in however many years. (This is just a computational problem, iirc it uses 4096bit encryption.)
ram2246May 19, 2007
I hate DRM, and I completely agree that every mainstream media company would be better off without using it, but I have to admit that if I can download the flick and and watch it for $.99, I don't mind pulling out the credit card.