Why HDCP is a Counterproductive Failure

Eager to experience the wonders of high definition, I recently purchased a blu-ray drive for my computer, bundled with CyberLink’s software player, Ultra PowerDVD. But instead, I discovered the nightmare of blu-ray’s mandatory signal encryption system, HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection or HanDiCaP; take your pick), and how remarkably effective this technology is in deterring honest consumers who simply want to play a legitimately purchased movie. Let me explain.

When I installed PowerDVD and popped in a blu-ray disc, it wouldn’t play: apparently, the decryption keys had already been revoked for that version of the player (the ability to regularly revoke keys is a much-touted “feature” of HDCP). The PowerDVD program told me I had to download an 87MB patch from CyberLink’s website to make it work (they must have damn big keys!) Unfortunately, CyberLink’s server was extremely slow and the download wouldn’t get past 100KB before timing out. After two days of unsuccessful attempts, I contacted CyberLink’s support department, which gave me an alternate URI. Just as well I didn’t hire an overnight movie!

Once installed, the updated player complained that my video card wasn’t HDCP-compliant. So I had to go out and buy a new video card—just to support this crazy copy-protection technology (I had already “upgraded” my perfectly good 24” monitor to a new model that supported HDCP).

But what about the benefits, you might ask? Surely HDCP must deter pirates, so movies studios and actors get paid their rightful dues. A quick scan of the Internet says not: high definition content is freely available via BitTorrent (and for a price, you can download software to crack any blu-ray disc; they must have developed HDCP and BD+ on an extreme budget).

So HDCP actually encourages piracy, as the following comparison shows:

Honest Consumer: Buys/rents blu-ray movies
Pirate: Downloads Movies for free

Honest Consumer: Must buy new HDCP-compliant monitor
Pirate: Can use existing monitor

Honest Consumer: Must buy new HDCP-compliant video card
Pirate: Can use existing video card

Honest Consumer: Must download 87MB patch when player keys are revoked
Pirate: Can laugh at the stupid key revocation system

Honest Consumer: Must sit through copyright notices and trailers
Pirate: Copyright notices and trailers conveniently removed from DivX stream

Honest Consumer: Must deal with region encoding
Pirate: No region encoding on DivX streams

Everything after the first item is punishment that the movie studios are unnecessarily inflicting on honest consumers. The movie studios are doing their best to turn you into a pirate.

To further illustrate the ridiculousness of HDCP, let’s suppose books were subject to a similar scheme, which we shall call PMCP—Printed Matter Content Protection. (Sony BMG: if you’re reading this and are considering getting into the book publishing business, you might want to start taking notes!)

Here’s how PMCP would work:

• Books would be printed in a special ink that appears invisible to the naked eye (and to scanners and photocopiers)
  
  
• The text would also be scrambled using a highly advanced encryption algorithm (something equally as effective as HDCP, such as reversing the letters of each word)
  
  
• The content would become legible only when seen through special glasses (PMCP glasses)
  
  
• Each manufacturer of PMCP glasses would be given a unique set of decoding keys which could be revoked at any time (books would have key revocation lists encoded into the footer of each page).

If a sneaky hacker figured out one of the keys and started printing it on t-shirts, the powers that be would simply revoke that key! But what about legitimate readers who bought glasses that shared that key, you might ask? This is where it gets clever: the glasses would feature a miniature USB port, and legitimate users would regularly update their glasses via the Internet—by downloading a small (87MB) patch. For users that fail to update, small electric shocks could be delivered through the frames as a gentle reminder.

The system would be incompatible with people who already wore glasses, but that would be no problem because (for a sizable fee) they could go back to their optometrists and upgrade to PMCP-compliant prescription glasses. (And for those who recently bought expensive high-definition non-PMCP-compliant glasses, tough luck!)

Aside from the electric shocks, the system is exactly analogous to HDCP. And it would achieve both of HDCP’s primary goals:

• It would frustrate the hell out of legitimate users
• It would be ineffective in preventing true piracy

The “benefits” of PMCP wouldn’t stop there. Here are other ways in which PMCP could deliver an experience identical to that of watching movie discs:

• Each book could begin with a 10-page header, comprising FBI copyright warnings and promos for other books (let us call them “book trailers”). The glasses could be programmed not to activate until the reader spent at least two minutes reading those pages! Switching to another book and back would mean having to re-read the FBI copyright notices (people have short memories!)
  
  
• Region Encoding: You might find this hard to believe, but there are some incredibly evil people in this world. Yes, there are people buy their books in another country—denying corporations their right to price-gouge smaller markets. With region encoding, each set of glasses would work only with books printed in their own country (multi-region glasses would be outlawed, and their keys revoked). This would force consumers in smaller countries to buy at locally inflated prices—and repurchase their library if they moved overseas.

The possibilities are endless:

• Publishers could prevent readers with PMCP-compliant prescription glasses from reading any document that might potentially be an illegal copy of a book, by blanking out the glasses if there was a smidgen of doubt. The easiest way to enforce this would be to block any document printed on an inkjet or laser paper that featured a Table of Contents. (Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but this has recently been done with blu-ray!)
  
  
• PMCP+: When connecting the USB cable from the glasses to a computer, the glasses could silently install a rootkit on the computer that actively prevented measures to circumvent PMCP.

I’m starting to wonder whether I should patent these ideas. And as for suggestions on how they can improve BD+ and HDCP, I’d say there’s just one thing missing from these technologies. The electric shocks!

Joe Albahari