Divx Hacker box viewed with suspicion

A black-box device for pirating Divx titles, the pay-per-view DVD derivative from Circuit City, is being peddled on the Internet. Called Divx Hack, the product is purported to wipe the Divx player's memory so the Divx owner is never billed for watching movies. Divx players are standard DVD players with an extra feature that allows for playing special Divx disks that can only be viewed for 48 hours after the first viewing. Users are charged for subsequent viewings via an account with Digital Video Express (DVE), the parent company and developer of the service.

The Divx player calls out to DVE once per month to transmit all purchases and charge the subscriber's credit card for the sales. The Divx Hack is designed to intercept that call and make the machine think it transmitted the pay-per-view data to DVE. The Divx Hack home page is linked to the home page of 805, a group of hackers in the Ventura County area of Southern California. Divx officials said they don't believe the box will work and caution would-be movie pirates against buying the device. The Divx Hack box is now under review by DVE's attorneys.

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