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Posted by Ablang on 08/11/07 01:44
Hacker Strips DRM From Netflix Movies
A hacker has figured out how to save streamed movies from Netflix,
using FairUse4WM to bypass Microsoft's copy protection.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Thursday, August 09, 2007 6:00 AM PDT
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135735/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
A hacker has posted instructions for how to save streamed movies from
the Netflix Inc. service, undermining Microsoft Corp.'s copy
protection technology designed to prevent people from saving the
content.
The hack is the latest in an escalating technical war by hackers
against DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies, which limit how
music and movies can be used in order to prevent piracy.
Netflix, which is best known for its mail-based movie rental service,
introduced a service in January called Watch Now that lets people
watch movies and TV shows immediately on their computer. Users can
watch a certain number of hours of streamed content per month
depending on their subscription.
A hacker who calls himself Dizzie wrote late last month on the Rorta
hacking forum that "Netflix doesn't easily allow you to save the
flicks and watch them at your leisure because the films are entrapped
in some ... Windows Media DRM wrapper," referring to Microsoft's DRM
system. Word of his hack spread more widely this week in various blogs
and Web sites.
Dizzie goes on to detail a 14-step process that includes the use of
FairUse4WM, a program created by another hacker about a year ago, to
remove Microsoft's DRM from the content. He writes that the process
for removing the DRM could take a few attempts, and the process does
not remove the time limit imposed by Netflix on viewing the content.
The Netflix site was down for maintenance early Thursday, although it
was unclear if it was related to the hack. The site was back up later
Thursday morning.
Microsoft has updated its DRM technology twice before to block the
effectiveness of FairUse4WM. Last month, hackers on the Doom9.org
forum declared another victory, saying it had defeated Microsoft's DRM
again, and the company said it was investigating.
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