The high-def digital media has been freed, for better or worse.
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, which is more commonly known abbreviated as HDCP, has been confirmed by Intel as cracked.
HDCP, which is the DRM scheme for HD hardware such as HDTV, cable boxes and Blu-ray Disc players is exposed and wide open for those who wish to bypass it. More specifically, the master key that is used for encryption is floating around on the internet freely for anyone who wishes to make use of it.
"We can use it to generate valid device keys that do interoperate with the (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) protocol," Intel spokesman Tom Waldrop told Cnet.
"What we have confirmed through testing is that you can derive keys for devices from this published material that do work with the keys produced by our security technology," he told FoxNews.
Intel doesn't seem too stressed over the defeat of HDCP, however, as the current scheme still stands to be an inconvenience to all those other than the most dedicated.
"For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," he added. "As a practical matter, that's a difficult and costly thing to do."
So this is pretty much useless then?