(no subject)

[tinyjo]

Copy protection can be defeated using marker pen. What can you say.

Comments

[andypop.livejournal.com]

Hooray for lo-tech.

Re: Ban all marker pens

[(Anonymous)]

It has been suggested that the upshot of this is that marker pens are now illegal under the DCMA (the american anti-copying law)—on the grounds that anything that can be used to circumvent copy protection is illegal, regardless of whether it has other uses or whether the copying you use it for would otherwise be legal.

Céline Dione’s CD has been released with bogus data on it designed to damage computers that play it back. Under the DMCA, this means it is illegal to play in on your PC—even though if the anti-copying feature were not there it would have been legal. In other words, they break your computer, and ity is you who are the criminal. This is a crazy law.

On the lo-fi hackery front, it has also been discovered that whereas fingerprint scanners can detect fake fingers made from high-tech sillicone, they are foolable using fake fingertips made from gelatine (as used in cooking). A Japanese researecher even managed to lift fingerprints from a glass and make a good enough fake fingerprint to fool commerical scanners 80% of the time. So much for unbreakable biometrics.

—Damian

Re: Ban all marker pens

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Also, CNN are breaking the law by printing that story telling you how to do it and I'm breaking it by linking to it!