Don't worry about encrypting content, and putting decryption capabilities into players.
Simply have the recording device do a dynamic on the fly content lookup (i.e. search audio, video, text, bytes) directly in the "master copyright database".
If the material accessed is copyrighted, either refuse recording or register the playback in a way analogous to how radio stations do it, incurring the implied royalties.
This type of scheme would of course rely on hardware vendor cooperation and improvements in audio/video search-- theircompetitor, Feb 24 2005 Video and auio fingerprinting http://arstechnica..../20060829-7609.html [theircompetitor, Jun 13 2007] Hadn't realized how far this had progressed http://www.vobileinc.com/ [theircompetitor, Sep 04 2012] So every time I listen to a CD I have to pay royalties?-- waugsqueke, Feb 24 2005 No, but every time you try to record something you need to pay royalties.-- Freefall, Feb 24 2005 So more expenses passed on to the consumer so they can violate the fair use act?-- Aq_Bi, Feb 24 2005 [waugs] -- as Freefal said, not when you play it, when you attempt to record it.
I'm simply pointing out that while the state of the art is a bit out here, it's becoming possible to do something like this rather than worrying about copy protection.
[Aq_Bi] this has nothing to do with passing expenses to the consumer. This could be a technique to eliminate the unauthorized copying of software, for instance.-- theircompetitor, Feb 25 2005 How does the software distinguish between the single copy allowed for personal use, and an illegal copy? Once only copying doesn't work because if your personal copy is destroyed, you are permitted to make another one.-- Detly, Feb 25 2005 your legal copy could have its own unique code-- theircompetitor, Feb 25 2005 This kind of annoying intrusive technology would drive even more millions to obtain their music illegally.-- kinemojo, Aug 16 2007 Estimated time to hack: 60 seconds.
1) Attempt to copy something.
2) Sniff your outgoing traffic to find the address of the authentication server.
3) Sniff the incoming packets to identify the "Go right ahead and copy" signal.
4) Change your hosts file so that the the remote authentication server is replaced with your home system.
5) Change your firewall so that all incoming signals for authentication get the "Go right ahead and copy" signal.
6) Copy all the stuff you want.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 16 2007 Would the device allow recording at times when where is no connectivity to the master database?
If so, it's merely necessary to break the connectivity (easy) to remove any protection. And if not, you've just made it useless for many legitimate purposes.
Besides, the information and plans necessary to construct a digital recording device from 'raw' components are readily available. An op amp or an ADC isn't going to "care" what sort of analog signal is put in, and a microcontroller will execute whatever instructions are programmed into it without regard for copyright or other legal issues.-- supercat, Aug 16 2007 The real thrust of the idea was that you have to do the equivalent of what a person does -- when you recognize a song, you know where the copyright belongs.
In that sense, the linked video and audio fingerprinting technologies now starting to be used by the various sites that might host uploaded content is in the spirit of the idea.
The actual player would obviously need to be mindfull of both phishing and other type of connctivity workarounds, but none of those are really unsolvable, a simple PGP conversation would nullify most phishing concerns.
You may get to a point that a router might catch this kind of content on the fly and block it, as you block a virus.-- theircompetitor, Aug 16 2007 [Galbinus_Caeli]
what if all traffic between device and server is encrypted? Wwhat if random data is constanly mixed with the instructions such as the "go right ahead" signal, making it impossible to simulate? What if all encryption/decryption is done by hardware on the device?-- kinemojo, Sep 01 2007 People would not buy devices with anti-functionality deliberately build into them.
The only way to pull this off is to pass a law requiring all devices to do this. In that case, who would be in charge of the authentication server? How would you stop this organisation from abusing their power?-- kinemojo, Sep 01 2007 And you know what else would happen?
1) Someone would find a way to rip the movies (in the worst case they could simply re-encode the analog signal)
2) They would alter the file slightly (perhaps by distorting the picture by a few percent), remove metadata and watermarks, and re-encode it in a different format. The server would no longer be able to recognize the file as one of its own.
3) They would distribute this "unlocked" version of the file sharing network of their choice.-- kinemojo, Sep 01 2007 random, halfbakery