eWeek: Cryptography Guru Paul Kocher Speaks Out

[Sidney Markowitz]

>> Kocher: [...] Then the studio can take measures to prevent
>> future movies from playing in that player. We're building a
>> stalemate. Attackers will break the security, but then the
>> content owner can have countermeasures.
> 
> Given that Kocher is one of the smartest and savviest security
> experts out there, how can he make absurd statements like those
> above?

Since the "stalemate" is that one player might become disabled for future movies from at least one studio, perhaps these measures are only aimed at a threat model of individuals making their personal copies available for widespread distribution over P2P networks like Kazaa. Kocher could have said that and it was left out of the quotes, or he could have neglected to mention the threat model he is addressing and those he is not.

Clearly anyone who would go to the trouble of using five or more players to extract the watermark and make an untraceable copy for widespread distribution would also not be stopped by having to buy a player for cash or steal one or borrow one and sacrifice its eventual ability to play movies made after some future date.

 -- sidney


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