How far did Sony really go with XCP?

I think anyone who gets to this blog already knows about the Sony XCP/DRM debacle. some new developments to this isthat Sony potentially broke the DMCA in order to create it’s anti-iTunes copy protection.

The DMCA states it’s illegal to reverse engineer copy protection. Getting technical, Mark Russinovich of Sys Internals and the guys at F-Secure broke the law to find out that the XCP copy protection was poorly written and harmful to any system it installed itself on.

But here’s a new twist. Rumor has it that parts of the XCP code were lifted from open sources applications. Parts of the multiple program’s code were found in the XCP code.

DRMS code was found in XCP. It is used to strip Apple’s FairPlay iTunes copy protection from songs, originally written by hacker hero DVD Jon. Reportedly it’s not being utilized, but still sits on these CDs. But that doesn’t matter. think back to the Rockstar/Grand Theft Auto/Hot Coffee debacle. The code wasn’t used by the game, but it was still there.

The LAME (more stolen code found in XCP) guys have said they’re not the suing kind of guys. But they have a big gun aimed at Sony if they don’t do what they feel is right here. I’m pretty sure they’d be happy if they pulled XCP discs off the shelves for good, replaced any discs that have this on it and offered a complete uninstall and fix of whatever this disc put on computers.

So who broke the law here? Who has the right to sue who?

Sony:

• potentitally broke the law by installing this in the first place. I’m sure this will be determined in the courts.
• supposedly sviolated copyrights by including code from LAME, id3lib, mpglib, mpg123, FAAC, and DRMS in their XCP CDs.
• Potentially violated the DMCA by including software that reverse engineer’s Apple’s FairPlay in their XCP CDs.

The creators of LAME, id3lib, mpglib, mpg123, FAAC, and DRMS:

• Has a big gun aimed at Sony that says “Lawsuit”, but doesn’t plan on pulling the trigger

Mark Russinovich, SysInternals and F-Secure:

• Violated the DMCA by reverse engineering Sony’s XCP

Apple:

• Can sue Sony for violating their copy protection and the DMCA by including DVD Jon’s FairPlay stripping code

This of course doesn’t count the lawsuits by New York, Texas, California, Italy and (I think) Britain against Sony.

References:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=940
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=933
http://sam.zoy.org/blog/2005-11-21-suspicious-activity-indeed

do you need apple’s broadband tuner?

The Broadband Tuner allows you to take full advantage of very high speed FiOS based Internet connections that have a high latency. The installer tweaks some system parameters.

This was not the decription a few days ago, as it had no mention of FiOS connections at all. Just speeds of over 5MBps. This has confused a lot of people recently.

It’s been slightly clarified over at Version tracker’s comment section for the file that if you’ve got a high speed connection and are looknig at ping times of 100+ms, then the Broadband Tuner will help. Otherwise, this might DECREASE your download speeds.

How can you check your ping time?
Open Terminal and enter this string: ping a.root-servers.net

It’ll give you al ist. If you’re over 100ms and are on a high speed connection, this could work for you. I saw no improvement on my G5, but my pings were also under 100 (and downloaded before this FiOS thing was added.)

Installed it accidentally? Well, Apple claims:

There is an optional uninstaller that can be used to restore the settings that were in effect at the time just before the system parameters were changed.

Although people were mentioning grey screens of death unpon uninstalling. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Me and Steve Jobs are like Brad Pitt and Ed Norton

We’re the same guy. Or something.

Sorry if I just spoiled the end of Fight Club, but apparently Apple had the same idea I had a few weeks ago in that the Mac has a future in the living room.

Check out this Think Secret post to see what I mean. A Mac Mini with a DVR built into it, apparently as a part of Front Row 2.0. Hot stuff!

Here’s my personal speculation, the Mac Mini is going to have a composite or RCA output built into it. So remember that in January when the Intel Mac Mini is released.

Front Row on any Mac!

Curious about running Front Row on your mac but don’t have one of those snazzy new iMac G5s? It’s a pretty simple process.

It used to be that you had to change some administrator needed files by hand, which can be worrysome to some Mac users. Well, the files still need to be changed, but now there’s an application that does it for you. The aptly named Front Row Enabler.

Front Row Enabler is only one part of the equation though. The other two are Front Row, obviously, and a shareware program named Pacifist.

Pacifist is a package installer for OS X, outside of the built-in one. This is to circumvent the need to have an iMac G5 in order to install the package. You don’t ned to pay the $20 if you are just installing this one thing.

The enabler alters your BezelServices.framework and BezelService.loginPlugin in your system library. This is to change your computer’s identity, regardless of what computer you’re running. The computer’s identity regarding what kind of Mac it is. To my knowledge it doesn’t really change anything else.

Here’s some proof. The link goes to a screenshot I took in the transition to Front Row. You can see the system info saying it’s a 2.0 GHz G5 in the image.

Screenshot

A review of Salling Clicker is next, which acts as my Bluetooth remote for Front Row and multiple other applications. Go download and enjoy!