Gizmodo: cracking

It's Legal to Break DVD DRM in Finland

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:20:28 EDT

Do you hear that sound? That's thousands of nerds cheering loudly, then coughing uncontrollably, then reaching for their inhalers thanks to a court ruling in Finland that rules CSS protection for DVDs ineffective. Why does this matter? Because under Finnish law, cracking DRM is only illegal when it's "effective," and CSS has become so ineffective that it's no longer illegal.

According to the court, CSS (the DRM on DVDs) no longer achieves its protection objective. The court relied on two expert witnesses and said that "since a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed." Thus, the court concluded that "CSS protection can no longer be held 'effective' as defined in law."

How long before HD DVD and Blu-ray discs get to this point? A year? Two years? Maybe it won't even be necessary if this story is accurate. – Jason Chen

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs "ineffective" [Turre via Boing Boing]

Proof That Zune Screens Are Cracking?

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:25:23 EST

Microsoft may be denying it, but a handful of Zune owners are still insisting that their player's screens are cracking on their own for no apparent reason. One of the owners went as far as taking stills and video of his damaged Zune. Apparently the crack is only visible when the Zune is turned on. Last time we checked, no one else seemed to have this problem so it's looking more like an isolated case or complete hoax. – Louis Ramirez

Zune Screens Are Still Cracking! [ClicZune]

Microsoft Denies Cracked Screens from Charging: Send In Those Pics

Jason Chen — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:31:27 EST

We've been hearing rumors on a possible problem with the Zune havings its screen cracked due to an expanding battery from leaving it charging all night. We haven't run into this problem ourselves, and Microsoft's official statement is that they haven't seen any evidence that the screen is being cracked from the battery. The most likely cause, they say, is the player being dropped onto the screen.

But how about our readers? Is your Zune cracked up thanks to your battery? If so, email in the pictures to tips at giz. We'll get to the bottom of this. – Jason Chen

Zune Insider