Wouldn't it be mor eaccurate to say "the studios 0wn j00"? This comment was, I thought, pretty accurate:

The original concept of the iTunes store was to counter piracy by being easier and more convenient than messing with crappy P2P software. Kinda sad if that gets lost somewhere and the studios force Apple to kill the goose.

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Apple's the one selling products that are broken by design. (In this case, both the laptop and the movie!)

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Why would you be playing Hellboy II in a classroom?

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He said "over lunch", so I assume this was not required viewing.

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I'm not certain, but doesn't playing a movie for a group of people count as a public performance and is not actually legal without a different kind of license than that which comes with the DVD?

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That struck me too. The broken products are bullshit, yes, but the teacher wasn't entirely innocent.

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If it's the case then, "technology unfairly actually enforces the law" isn't exactly the strongest case to make against HDCP.

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Who cares! The projector doesn't magically know how many people are looking at it.

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And god forbid we teachers actually have a bit of spare time to ourselves.

It's fair enough you try to stop me copying films... but to tell me I can't watch them because my TV isn't licenced... WTF? Piss off I'll stop watching films instead.

I can't wait until normal people are so inconvenienced by this crap that they all stop buying stuff.

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True, but there's also the possibility that he was just playing it for himself on the projector.

Also in this day and age schools certainly aren't that public. Trying to get into my old school a year or so after graduation to help my girlfriend clean out her locker at the end of the year I managed to get hassled even by teachers who knew me rather well.

Public performance, AFAIK, is usually more of an issue when you're showing it in a space that is publicly accessible or for profit. I don't see how this is fundamentally different from me showing a film to a group of friends at home. Give them time though and there will be authorization for the implanted chips in all of the viewers present so that nobody who isn't authorized will be allowed to be in the same room.

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I'm no IP lawyer, but aren't they supposed to give teachers certain leeway when it's for educational purposes?

Of course, it's not like the projector would know the venue of the projection any more than it knows its audience. And it's not unheard of to use a projector as a home TV. But this may not be a matter of enforcing the law anyway. Or it may be a matter of enforcing a law that is never enforced (for good reason).

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I thought HDCP rules applied only to digital displays (the intent being to prevent digital copies that otherwise could be made by sniffing the output signal). Last I checked, VGA output, being analog, was not subject to its protections. Clearly something is amiss here (DRM notwithstanding).

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Well, since it's an analog display, it will refuse to play on it?

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No, it's supposed to play, since it's an analog display -- despite being HDCP-burdened.

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Even on non-HDCP digital displays, I'm pretty sure it's just supposed to resize it down to DVD quality (720x480), not block it.

Apple: broken implementation of lame DRM, and it... oh? ooooo, shiny...

Edited at 2008-11-19 01:04 am (UTC)

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You're probably thinking of standalone Blu-Ray players. They will downgrade the picture to 960x540 on analog outputs (component video, usually) when the Image Constraint Token is enabled: http://sawaal.ibibo.com/computers-and-accessories/will-bluray-downconvert-analog-outputs-462628.html

I guess what we're seeing here is that computers running "official" Blu-Ray software will probably not play Blu-Ray video at all unless the display is on a "trusted" HDCP connection, like a laptop display or a monitor on a HDMI port.

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How would the macbook know that there is a displayport->vga adapter plugged in and not a digital display?

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Handshaking.

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Part of the HDCP spec is that you cannot display protected content to devices that do not have HDCP protection. Windows will give the same type of error for the exact same reasons.

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This is getting retarded. >:( I hate stupid protection stuff like that.

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This is why I only buy MP3s online (or grab the lossless versions from Magnatune). :-\

Die media dinosaurs, die.

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Actually, I lied, I also buy DRM-free M4A files from iTunes.

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iTunes is the devil

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I keep hearing that (and hearing from people who have it killing their systems, eating their files, and kicking their dogs), but it works pretty well for me. I've even got the file library mounted via AFS from the FreeBSD server in the basement... slow, but works.

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Sounds like it's time to RIOT RIOT RIOT!

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Perhaps a pass-through device reporting HDCP compliance but with arbitrary output for archival purposes under the archival copy exemption of the DMCA would be better (and more profitable for whomever sells it) than an actual riot.

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But a riot would be much more fun. Let's have some heads on spikes.

We can then film it and watch it on our modded XBoxes and analog tellies.

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If we're using analog spectrum audiovisual receivers to watch movies, then what's training the pigeons with disabilities to hunt down floor dirt?

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The riot will not be HDCP authorized.

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I must confess when this image appeared on my screen I attempted to click the OK button before realising it was a screenshot. I did wonder briefly why the text was smaller than usual.

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What do they think people are going to do when they see this and want to watch the movie?
-Run to the store and purchase the DVD, repay for the movie they already bought so they can watch it on the projector?
OR
-Pirate the movie.

Piracy, once you start, it's hard to stop.

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What part of this activity it actually illegal? Will Apple eventually dictate that only Apple monitors will work with Macbooks? Probably not, but this pretty much feels like that.

Also, what "authorizes" the display? Does the display have some cert that tells the Macbook "hey man, I'm cool" or is it that you can only have a limited number of displays registered for display? Aw this is all so stupid, it hurts my brain.

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Go read up on how HDCP works, then come back and get mad.

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"Licensed adopters cannot allow their devices to make copies of content, and must design their products in ways that "effectively frustrate attempts to defeat the content protection requirements.""

So they're doing it on purpose, to piss the pirates off.

Well that'll make them give up, won't it. The whole thing relies on a proprietary system, so once again it's security through obscurity.

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Simple answer: download movie from a torrent site instead of iTunes, watch content unencumbered, allow the "industry" to continue antagonizing their customer base until they bankrupt themselves.

On the other hand, Hellboy 2 was a pretty lame movie. Stop watching comic book movie adaptions because the studios are just doing them by the numbers nowadays in the hope you'll think it's another Spiderman or X-Men.

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At least it had more than one kind of monster.

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I can't help but picture the teacher flipping on his old style overhead ten minutes later and then getting the message, "this marker is not licensed for usage with this equipment" when he attempts to scribble a note on his overhead transparency sheet for the class. (Heh)

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The checkbox could say

[ ] You won't be warned again

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