German CT magazine, a leading German computer publication, put security boasts to the test when its reviewers wondered what would happen if they simply pressed the “print screen” button while watching HD DVD and Blu-ray films. The result was a perfect copy.
While hitting “print screen” once only yielded one frame of a movie, the process could easily be automated for illegal duplication purposes, Charlie White, who wrote about the experiment for Gizmodo.com, said.
“We can only laugh when we recall the interminable demos where smug Blu-ray and HD DVD hucksters blathered on about how it was impossible to hack their invulnerable copy protection,” White said. “You can't lock down eyeballs. Information wants to be free, and this is just the first crack in those walls of Jericho, soon to be tumbling down.”
German CT conducted its test using the Blu-ray-equipped Sony Vaio VGC-RC 204 and the HD DVD-equipped Toshiba Qosmio notebook.
According to a report in German CT, Toshiba acknowledged the vulnerability of its system and vowed to fix the gaff in the next release of its DVD player software.
German CT will hit newsstands July 10 with details of its experiment.
