James Delahunty
5 Sep 2005 15:03
The infamous Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon has hacked encryption coding in Microsoft's Windows Media Player that may open content broadcasting to alternative platforms. He reverse engineered a proprietary algorithm that is used to wrap Media Player NSC files that is supposed to protect them from hackers who go snooping to discover the IP address and port of the source. He has made a decoder for the files available.
He did it because it was requested but he also doesn't believe that there is a good reason why NSC files should be encrypted, as the source IP address and port can be found simply using Netstat. It is his hope that this hack will make content streamed to Media Player more available on non-Windows platforms.
DVD Jon is also responsible for developing work around for Apple's iTunes music service that allowed users to purchase music without the additional DRM protection and without having to use the iTunes software. However, the Norwegian is mostly known for his best work, which was his part in the creation of DeCSS, which effectively allows DVDs to be watched on Linux because it descrambles the Content Scrambling System (CSS) protection on a DVD disc.
However, since many adopted DeCSS to either copy their own bought DVDs or for piracy, his work landed him in a court battle with the MPAA which he eventually won.
Source:
The Register
(Thank you enog29 for News Submission)