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Google Takes Down Repositories that Circumvent its Widevine DRM

posted by martyb on Sunday November 15 2020, @01:46AM   
from the closing-the-barn-door dept.

takyon writes:

Google Takes Down Repositories That Circumvent its Widevine DRM

GitHub has removed several repositories that helped to bypass Google's Widevine DRM, which is used by popular streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. Google requested the code to be removed as it would violate the DMCA. The company also sent a sensitive data takedown request for the associated RSA key which, ironically, remains easy to find through Google.

[...] The code, originally published by security researcher Tomer Hadad, is a proof-of-concept code Chrome extension that shows how easy it is to bypass the low-security ["L3" version of Widevine Digital Rights Management]. Google was aware of this vulnerability and previously informed Krebs on Security that it would address the issue.

[...] Google sees the code, which was explicitly published for educational purposes only, as a circumvention tool. As such, it allegedly violates section 1201 of the DMCA, an allegation that was also made against the youtube-dl code last month.

[...] This 'key controversy' is reminiscent of an issue that was widely debated thirteen years ago. At the time, a hacker leaked the AACS cryptographic key "09 F9" online which prompted the MPAA and AACS LA to issue DMCA takedown requests to sites where it surfaced.

DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DRM: Digital Rights Management
AACS: Advanced Access Content System
MPAA: Motion Picture Association of America
AACS: Advanced Access Content System
AACS LA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AACS_LA

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Original Submission

• Re:Hadad Re:Hadad (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Sunday November 15 2020, @07:50AM (3 children)

  by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday November 15 2020, @07:50AM (#1077531) Journal

  His name was Haddad, which also then begs the question who Whitman and Price are in this version of reality.

  Oh, dear, this is like the third time today I have heard imbeciles use this phrase incorrectly! We have been over this many times, do not make this mistake, or I will eggcorn the excrement out of you. First:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question [wikipedia.org]

    Then, from Grammar Girl, https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/begs-the-question [quickanddirtytips.com]

  In fact, that wrong usage is so common some people will argue it's not an error anymore (7). But I'm firmly in the camp that believes it's worthwhile to stick to the formal definition. There are plenty of phrases writers can use when they mean "makes me wonder" or "raises the question." There's no hole in the English language that needs to be filled, so there's no reason to use begs the question improperly.

  Which raises the question, why do so many use the phrase "begs the question" incorrectly?
  The answer? Illiteracy, or marginal functioning literacy, as with our deal loorg, or the much more marginally literate Runaway1956.

  An eggcorn differs from a malapropism, the latter being a substitution that creates a nonsensical phrase. Classical malapropisms generally derive their comic effect from the fault of the user, while eggcorns are substitutions that exhibit creativity, logic[3] or ignorance.[4] Eggcorns often involve replacing an unfamiliar, archaic, or obscure word with a more common or modern word ("baited breath" for "bated breath").[5]

  The phenomenon is similar to the form of wordplay known as the pun except that, by definition, the speaker or writer intends the pun to have some humorous effect on the recipient, whereas one who speaks or writes an eggcorn is often unaware.[6]

  It is also similar to, but differs from, a mondegreen or a folk etymology.[7]

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn [wikipedia.org]

  For example, if I were to say that this usage is very punny, that is an intentional and lame attempt at humor. If I were to say that after narrowly escaping Trump being erected, I have a new leash on life, that is an eggcorn. Because it appears I have heard the phrase "new lease on life" but did not really comprehend it, and so I substituted my doggie control device, which sounds like it.

  Behold:

  For all intensive purposes, on the spurt of the moment, this is the death nail of the English language, and sets a president for at hominem attacks that dusk off and signal out the cold slaw from the holland day sauce, and the pansy-waste illocutors of Latin who are straddled with burgandying mistakes in language, which are spreading like wildflowers, and which cause them to be curled up in the feeble position, like a damp squid [lascribe.net] or cuddlefish, in an ocean of ignorance and misunderstandings.

  So let us have no more of this question begging nonsense. While it is true that every question begged is in effect a tautology, and therefore by its very semantic form, a true statement, not every question raised has the same perogatives, and so we best distinguish them. M'kay?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:Hadad Re:Hadad (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 15 2020, @09:45PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 15 2020, @09:45PM (#1077660)

  Feel better now, attempting to belittle something you have no place to judge?

  Parent

  • Re:Hadad (Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Sunday November 15 2020, @10:03PM

    by khallow (3766) on Sunday November 15 2020, @10:03PM (#1077664) Journal

    At least, he wasn't begging for any questions!

    Parent

  • Re:Hadad (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday November 16 2020, @12:08AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Monday November 16 2020, @12:08AM (#1077698) Journal

    Actually, I did an entire journal on the question of question-begging: Questions be a-begging [soylentnews.org]. If you really need it, I can send you a list of my Credentials. I have a place to judge. Ipse Dixit.

    Parent