Macrovision RipGuard can't stop ripping

Back in February this year, Macrovision made a terrible attempt to scare the "ripping community" with the introduction of RipGuard. The company claimed that RipGuard would "stop DVD rippers in their tracks" and would have a dramatic effect on the amount of content that makes its way to P2P networks. "RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer," said the firm.

However, Macrovision's "perfect" RipGuard solution does not match up to the firms claims. "We were able to circumvent the technology and rip a perfect copy of ['Madagascar'] using a free DVD ripper downloaded from the Internet," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a recent report. Yes that is true, "FREE" DVD ripping software already stops the RipGuard copy protection in its path.

This is bad news for Macrovision and the studios, who were promised 97% of lost revenue returned by Macrovision if they invested in RipGuard technology. In fact, Macrovision has such little faith in its own creations that it has to bully coders and sites in a desperate attempt to make these rippers disappear, so that movie studios can be fooled into believing their copy protection is as effective as they claim.

Macrovision's technology limits consumer's fair use rights by attempting to prevent them from making backup copies of their own movies. Macrovision never addresses this problem however, instead the company likes to use piracy as an excuse to justify limiting consumers rights. Also, when the company unveiled RipGuard in February, it said that it plays in "nearly all" DVD players - but of course didn't give any details on players it wouldn't work in. "Nearly all" is not good enough when a consumer has spent their own earned money on a DVD player which possibly will have problems with RipGuard DVDs.

As you all know by now, Macrovision decided to also "order" that DVD Decrypter be removed from AfterDawn's download section. This will be done on Sunday 27th November, or as soon as technically possible - but it will still be in the AfterDawn download section until then. Users are reminded that software such as AnyDVD, DVDFab Decrypter and FreeDVD are just some examples of software that can assist in creating backups and are still in our download section.

DVD Decrypter will remain in widespread use for a long time yet. Macrovision could get it removed from every site online and it would still float around P2P networks and consumers HDDs - so it would still be quite easily obtained.

Source:
Forbes

Written by: James Delahunty @ 24 Nov 2005 8:44

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36 comments

pollution

Another copy protection that did not work.
Why don't these companies not do what they did with worms 4 mayhem and just sell the movies for what they are worth? No one has hacked worms 4 mayhem, it is only 20 dollars which is a fair price.

24.11.2005 09:37 #1

ireland

the info,

Macrovision RipGuard can't stop ripping

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/7058.cfm
24 November 2005 13:44 by Dela
[picture]Back in February this year, Macrovision made a terrible attempt to scare the "ripping community" with the introduction of RipGuard. The company claimed that RipGuard would "stop DVD rippers in their tracks" and would have a dramatic effect on the amount of content that makes its way to P2P networks. "RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer," said the firm.

However, Macrovision's "perfect" RipGuard solution does not match up to the firms claims. "We were able to circumvent the technology and rip a perfect copy of ['Madagascar'] using a free DVD ripper downloaded from the Internet," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a recent report. Yes that is true, "FREE" DVD ripping software already stops the RipGuard copy protection in its path.

This is bad news for Macrovision and the studios, who were promised 97% of lost revenue returned by Macrovision if they invested in RipGuard technology. In fact, Macrovision has such little faith in its own creations that it has to bully coders and sites in a desperate attempt to make these rippers disappear, so that movie studios can be fooled into believing their copy protection is as effective as they claim.

Macrovision's technology limits consumer's fair use rights by attempting to prevent them from making backup copies of their own movies. Macrovision never addresses this problem however, instead the company likes to use piracy as an excuse to justify limiting consumers rights. Also, when the company unveiled RipGuard in February, it said that it plays in "nearly all" DVD players - but of course didn't give any details on players it wouldn't work in. "Nearly all" is not good enough when a consumer has spent their own earned money on a DVD player which possibly will have problems with RipGuard DVDs.

As you all know by now, Macrovision decided to also "order" that DVD Decrypter be removed from AfterDawn's download section. This will be done on Sunday 27th November, or as soon as technically possible - but it will still be in the AfterDawn download section until then. Users are reminded that software such as AnyDVD, DVDFab Decrypter and FreeDVD are just some examples of software that can assist in creating backups and are still in our download section.

DVD Decrypter will remain in widespread use for a long time yet. Macrovision could get it removed from every site online and it would still float around P2P networks and consumers HDDs - so it would still be quite easily obtained.

Source:

Macrovision's RipGuard Effective But Not Perfect
David Ng, 11.22.05, 12:05 PM ET

Piper Jaffray maintained a "market perform" rating and $19 target price on Macrovision (nasdaq: MVSN - news - people ), citing mixed results for the company's RipGuard DVD product.

The research firm said RipGuard effectively works against some popular DVD rippers, but added that certain software successfully overrides Macrovision's technology.

"We were able to circumvent the technology and rip a perfect copy of ['Madagascar'] using a free DVD ripper downloaded from the Internet," Piper analyst Gene Munster wrote in a recent report.

DreamWorks Animation (nyse: DWA - news - people ) is the first studio to implement RipGuard with the recently released DVD of "Madagascar," according to Piper.

"The use of RipGuard on a major title is a sign of the confidence that this studio has in the ability of RipGuard protected DVDs to play on all DVD players without technical issues," Piper said.

The research firm noted that RipGuard was effective in stopping two popular DVD ripping products, DVD X Copy and 123 Copy DVD, that were tested on "Madagascar."

Piper said studios may be hesitant to use DVD protection that can be circumvented by the casual DVD pirate.

If studios deem that the average pirate will stop after one or two failed attempts, "studios may decide that RipGuard is sufficiently effective," Piper said.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2005/11/22/macrovision-dvd-ripping-...

24.11.2005 09:43 #2

aabbccdd

hehehe my 12 year old neice can beat ripguard lol

so eat that Macrovision

24.11.2005 13:27 #3

john107

reminds me of King Canute trying to hold back the waves.....and getting his feet wet! lol......

24.11.2005 14:09 #4

nonoitall

The entertainment industry is just destroying itself by making its products less and less desirable, and they want to take down customers' rights along with them. Pathetic.

24.11.2005 15:36 #5

goptaron

why the hell do they even try?

24.11.2005 18:09 #6

goptaron

i dont understand it they spent how much 500 thousand-1million dollars to produce crap that has a fancy name?

24.11.2005 18:10 #7

Rikoshay

Limiting Freedoms? Seems to be a rising trend here in the states, kinda like the Iraq war.

Oops! I wasn't supposed to say that? Oh well. F*ck it.

24.11.2005 18:57 #8

A_Klingon

It's a telling tale when MicroSuction, who couldn't string two lines of useful code together on their own if their lying, propaganda-filled lives depended on it, have to resort to threats and intimidation and go crawling to *intelligent* programmers (like Lightning UK!) and demand his code.

24.11.2005 20:42 #9

cash1la

Does anyone here actually know what this new ripguard does? Yes it guards dvd's from being backed up but do you know what it really does? All it does is hide files and codes. Thats why we get all those errors when we try to shrink our new dvd's. Shute my pc wouln't even read stealth, until I found a way around that. So take that macrosuction jajajajajaja. Oppps to many jajas.

24.11.2005 22:47 #10

PirateDan

I had been trying to figure out who these companies like Macrovision remind me of and then it hit me.
They are like the drug companies, if a study comes out that says that if you do this and eat this way you will be healthy.
But out comes the drug company and says that if you use our pill it will do the samething and you can still have your Krispy Kream everyday.
Or the other part of it is, say this pill will help you with your illness.
But if you take this pill this will cause this to happen but will have a pill that will fix the problem that the first pill caused.
It's a sick cycle and these big companies are trying to feed on the little people.

24.11.2005 22:57 #11

Mik3h

Haha, they invest so much money into Copy Protection and then it all turns out to be a total waste of time, because within minutes it is cracked, heh.

-Mike

25.11.2005 02:54 #12

evilh0ly

god any protection can be overcome

25.11.2005 06:04 #13

cappyx

Fire Smackrovision, sue them for being a bunch of spineless bs artist, lower the dvd cost to fair and reasonable, throw out fancy plastic cases in exchange for simple paper sleeves and no one will care about hacking this stuff.

25.11.2005 07:18 #14

ireland

they should use a harder plastic to stop the Scratching the surface of the disks,and stop using the cheap plastic..that most movie are put on.

25.11.2005 07:27 #15

Dirtydeed

I say spank em with a fish head and feed it to em. lol

25.11.2005 16:40 #16

Rushman1

If Ripguard was really on the movies That Mr. Piper says, then why does anydvd not display it? I have my doughts that it has come out yet. This reminds me of the time when everyone in the forums was blasting DTV about they could not stop them from hacking their cards.Well guess what!! They came after the end usuers and then all those people on the forums that didnt have a clue about writing a script (and braged they could not be stopped) got letters and had to cough up $3500. I would be careful about kicking sand in the big boys face. I paid $3500 to learn that lesson. Some people were lucky some were not..which are you?? Not trying to make anyone mad, but just being careful.

Just my 2 cents

26.11.2005 04:21 #17

aabbccdd

Ripguard protection on a dvd and hacking DTV cards are two totally different issues

Antec Overature ATX Quiet Media Case w/ TruePower480Watt/Asus K8V SE/ Seagate160GB Barracuda/ ATI-Radeon-X850 XT Platinum/ 512 PC-3200 DDR400 X 2/AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K/5 Fans/Plextor712A Drives/View Sonic VP201b 20.1"LCD,16 MS Respone time,1600x1200 res.

26.11.2005 08:41 #18

Rushman1

ABC
The behavior is all I am talking about that is the same.
No Offense intended.

26.11.2005 10:04 #19

cash1la

Umm in case you havent heard, AnyDVD did display it. Go to their web site and you'll lern what ripguard is really about. All ripguard is, it's a stupid thing that hides codes and other files within the dvd it's self. Thats why you get all those read errors in DVD Shrink. Not only does it give a read error but it tells you were the error is. Try it on stealth, madagascar, and war of the worlds. Nothing AnyDVD cant find though.

26.11.2005 19:26 #20

JaguarGod

@cash1la,

Where on slysoft's website did you find out about Ripguard? As far as I know, AnyDVD does not fully remove this corruption.

When I took a look at the IFOs of Madagascar, I did not see a big difference between this and ARccOS. Ripguard seems to place a corrupted cell in a different PGC from the main movie while ARccOS corrupts the main movie PGC. Both are not really protections, but actually intentional authoring errors IMO.

@Rushman1,

I know for a fact that Ripguard is being used, because I have read some articles about it. Most have been in news about adult videos.

The reason that AnyDVD does not diplay "found and removed Ripguard" is because the creators of AnyDVD do not know exactly what Ripguard is. However, since it is still a structure based corruption, it does a good job of fixing movies with Ripguard.

27.11.2005 12:53 #21

aabbccdd

here you go

looks like its offical that "Madagascar" does have Ripguard

anydvd update to 5.6.1.1

5.6.1.1, 2005 11 27

- New: Added detection and removal of a new type of protection
"MacroVision RipGuard" as found on "Madagascar WideScreen" R1 (US)
or "Vet Hard" R2 (Netherlands) to the option to remove
"Protection based on unreadable Sectors"
Note: RipGuard could be copied together with elby CloneDVD2 since
AnyDVD version 5.4.1.1, but this new version supports drag and drop
of all files from DVD to harddisk as well!
- New: Added support for a new version of the Sony Arccos protection
as found on "Seinfeld Season 6 Disc 3" R2 (German) to the option to
remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors"
- New: Information Window now shows MacroVision RipGuard, if it was
detected.
- New: Information Window now displays, if "Error zones between files"
have been removed, like on "Resident Evil - Apocalypse" R1 (US)

27.11.2005 20:46 #22

syeberman

Is Macrovision still obsessed with corruption?

Syeberman ....
"Throws a time base corrector at a tribble"

28.11.2005 01:42 #23

swmiller6

Some one ought to tell these guys if you can watch or hear it you can copy it!!!!!!!

28.11.2005 04:42 #24

ireland

now ye will know if it has RipGuard

its from here
http://www.slysoft.com/download/changes_anydvd.txt

AnyDVD 5.6.1.1
just info

Music labels losing sales over DRM
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/263395

Rikoshay
your right,i did not see the other post..

28.11.2005 07:01 #25

Rikoshay

@ ireland,

I think it's great that you site your sources, but I think that if the comment was already placed in a thread, then you should just point out where that source was from, and not restate what was already said.

28.11.2005 07:16 #26

runner121

Its funny that they spend millions trying to create
turbulence and ended up with a light breeze. Yay for
Macromutz!!

29.11.2005 22:37 #27

aabbccdd

heres "Sky High"

Summary for drive E: (AnyDVD 5.6.1.1)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Media is a Data DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (opposite)

Video DVD (or CD) label: SKH0NNF1
Media is CSS protected!
Video Standard: NTSC
Media is locked to region(s): 1!

RCE protection not found.
Found & removed wrong DVD structure!
Found & removed Macrovision RipGuard protection!
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Found & removed 2 bad sector protections!
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!

ripped,encoded,shrinked and backup in leed that 25 minutes HAAAAAAAAAA!!!! macrovision

29.11.2005 23:24 #28

l34merik

What is that free ripping program? Anyone found out? If I can't find it, I guess I'll just have to buy AnyDVD instead. Also Dvd X Copy as a test? Com on that ripper has stopped updating for a long time. I was so pissed of when i just brought it at my local CompUSA for $100 and a month later the company shut down which then opens later as 321 or 123 Copy Dvd or something and then doesn't give their old customer updates.

30.11.2005 15:11 #29

aabbccdd

l34merik your probably looking for DVD43 its a free ripper BUT nothing close compared to AnyDVD well worth the money my freind

30.11.2005 23:10 #30

JaguarGod

Also, as wild77 stated, DVD Decrypter is working so far with Ripguard movies.

1.12.2005 09:48 #31

feared

Hi all. This is my first post on AFTERDAWN. I agree with the post of member "swmiller6". They will never be able to stop but only slow down the 'copying industry'. The only question that comes to my mind is how long before the copy protection is cracked again.
I feel sorry for guys like AnyDVD who will soon find themselves getting the 'tap on the shoulders'. But, I believe that, like 'swmiller6', if you can see or hear it..you can copy it!
It will be a never ending battle until the price of music, games and video drops low enough that people would rather just buy it retail than download the latest crack or ripper.
For now it's kinda fun watching BIG BROTHER sweat-it while others rip-it.
P.S Madagascar sucks anyways. I liked Shrek more!
:)

22.12.2005 18:28 #32

JaguarGod

Based on what I've read, next gen DVDs will not be the same. It will have invisible watermarks and changes in audio pitch that will prevent copying even with a video camera and microphone. I've seen something similar in that past, at least with audio signal scrambling, and that is no joke, however, this only to prevent Video camera copies, so it was not implemented in that same way as I have seen.

Of course, this means that there will be more efforts to crack the actual encryption on a disc.

As for Ripguard, this is not copy protection. Same goes for ARccOS.

23.12.2005 06:30 #33

dvdguyad

who want dvd ripper ? email me

27.1.2006 18:17 #34

S2K

Quote:Based on what I've read, next gen DVDs will not be the same. It will have invisible watermarks and changes in audio pitch that will prevent copying even with a video camera and microphone. I've seen something similar in that past, at least with audio signal scrambling, and that is no joke, however, this only to prevent Video camera copies, so it was not implemented in that same way as I have seen. any next gen material that is backwards compatable will not be able to use new hard to crack schemes.

very vehcile made in the past with advd player and every vehcile made for the next couple of years will have standard dvd players. people may buy one hd player but the bulk of the market will be standatd dvd for five to seven yearts at aminumum.

the methods you mention will be cracked in less than a year.

don't forget that the sped of cracks are simpy dependent on the number of units sold. if as many xbox 360 existed as dvd players there would have been a crack and or hardware solution the first month

7.2.2006 12:07 #35

JaguarGod

Quote:if as many xbox 360 existed as dvd players there would have been a crack and or hardware solution the first monthRight you are!!! The availability of the hardware (or software) will speed things up.

8.2.2006 21:41 #36

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