this is for Doom9 about how safedisc works

[Shabubu]

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_protections_safedisc.shtml

As far as I'm aware there are no links to warez from that particular site, but there may be so read quick. exert below:

Company
:
Ç-Dilla
Macrovision Corporation


Protection
:
SafeDisc


How to Detect
:
The following files should exist on every the original CD:
00000001.TMP

CLCD16.DLL

CLCD32.DLL

CLOKSPL.EXE

DPLAYERX.DLL


There is always a GAME.EXE and GAME.ICD file where the .ICD is the original game executable (in encrypted form) and the .EXE is a loader containing a parts of the SafeDisc protection.



Use Protection ID or ClonyXXL




Backup Solution
:
Currently there are 3 ways available of dealing with this protection:
1:1 CD-Copy
BlindRead & DDump both support this CD protection as long as the CD-Reader supports RAW (MMC DAO RAW) mode reading.

Generic SafeDisc Patches
Create a 1:1 CD-Copy and then use the Generic SafeDisc Patch or DAEMON Tools to remove the protection from the game!

Executable UnWrappers
unSafeDisc or DumPlayerx can extract the real executable from the encrypted .ICD file, just replace the existing .EXE and burn it back to a CD-R or replace it after the game installation.


If your CD-Reader & CD-Writer both support the MMC DAO RAW mode then just do the 1:1 CD-Copy. If not use the DAEMON Tools, unSafeDisc or DumPlayerx to play the game!



Protected
:


Army Men 2
Microsoft Atlas 2000
Blood 2
Braveheart
Bundesliga Stars 2000
Carmageddon 2
Championship Manager 3
C&C: Tiberian Sun
Commandos: Btcod
Darkstone
Dethkarz
Diablo 2
DiscWorld Noir
Dungeon Keeper 2
Microsoft Encarta 2000
Expandable
European Air War
FA Premier League Stars
Falcon 4
Fleet Command
Gungan: Die Neue Welt
Heavy Gear 2
Hell-Copter
Heroes of Might & Magic
Hidden & Dangerous
Jagged Alliance 2
Klingon Honor Guard
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Lego Creator
Lego Chess
Madden NFL 2000
Mech Warrior 3
Midtown Madness
Might & Magic 7
NBA Inside Drive 2000
NFL Fever 2000
NFS: High Stakes
NHL 2000
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
Pandora's Box
Prince of Persia 3D
Rage
Railroad Tycoon II
Railroad Tycoon II TSC
Redline
RollerCoaster Tycoon
Powerslide
Rainbow Six
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Speedbusters
Star Trek: BotF
Star Wars Droids
TA: Kingdoms
V2000
Viva Football
Warhammer 4000: RoW
Warzone 2100
Western Front
Worms 2: Armageddon
You Don't Know Jack 2




SafeDisc Versions



Available SafeDisc Versions - check the DPLAYERX.DLL filesize:



Bytes
Ver
Date
Details
Affected Games


81,408
r0
sept'98
jump table for api's,
Rainbow Six


155,648
r1
apr'99
api mangling two push version
Rollercoaster Tycoon


156,160
r1
aug'99
two push version
Tiberian Sun 1.08, Darkstone 1.02, Dungeon Keeper 2, System Shock 2


163,328
r2
-
three push? encrypted ascii's
Tiberian Sun 1.13, Darkstone 1.03, Cutthroats, AOE 2


165,888
r2
-
-
Darkstone 1.04/1.05b, HL Opposing Force, Abomination r1/r2.6.4, Unreal Tournament v4


172,544
r3
jan'00
api decided by calling address
Darkstone 1.05eu,Unreal Tournament v413


173,568
r3
apr'00
slight variation on previous version
Messiah 01, F1 2000, Thief2 1.18


136,704
r4
may -
july'00
128bit keys, api wrapper changes slightly for every game
MDK 2, f1wgp, IG 2 105b


138,752
r4
july'00
_r4, but has another layer of encryption on the *.icd
GP3 3, Gunship!






Protection Info



The SafeDisc technology is a software-based solution that does not require any changes to standard PC or CD-ROM hardware. It is comprised of both an authenticating digital signature embedded on the disc, as well as a multi-layered encrypted wrapper that secures the CD-ROM content. The digital signature, which cannot be copied by CD recorders or mastering equipment, is embedded by the laser beam recorder at the time the CD-ROM master is made at the mastering/replication facility.





Company information



Macrovision Corporation has announced today that Ubi Soft Entertainment, a publisher and international distributor of interactive entertainment products, has signed an agreement to use Macrovision's SafeDisc PC CD-ROM copy protection technology on all of its titles through 1999.

"Many software publishers are spending enormous amounts of energy combining high technology with great game play but are neglecting to protect their finished product from the growing software piracy epidemic," said Yves Guillemot, president of Ubi Soft Entertainment. "We felt it was critical to use Macrovision's SafeDisc copy protection to ensure protection for our consumers and to maintain our reputation."



In its first 60 days of production, SafeDisc was applied to over one million discs and licensed at 17 mastering and replication facilities worldwide. SafeDisc was used on a combined 32 Sku's by publishers that include GT Interactive, Interplay, Microprose, Red Storm Entertainment, Take 2 Interactive Software and TalonSoft.



The SafeDisc technology is a software-based solution that does not require any changes to standard PC or CD-ROM hardware. It is comprised of both an authenticating digital signature embedded on the disc, as well as a multi-layered encrypted wrapper that secures the CD-ROM content. The digital signature, which cannot be copied by CD recorders or mastering equipment, is embedded by the laser beam recorder at the time the CD-ROM master is made at the mastering/replication facility.



When a user inserts an original disc in a CD-ROM drive, the authentication software reads the digital signature, allowing the program to be decrypted and run normally. If an unauthorized copy is loaded, the authentication software will no longer be able to find the digital signature, and the copy will not run. An important feature of SafeDisc is the multi-level anti-hacking technology that helps prevent the compromise of its security features. The anti-hacking technology is designed to not only deter consumer copying, but to also thwart experienced hackers and commercial pirates.



UbiSoft Copy Protection:

Montreal based UbiSoft Entertainment will start using Macrovision's SafeDisc copy protection technology on all their upcoming CD-ROM titles. The SafeDisc technology encrypts the CD with a digital signature which can't be picked up by CD recorders and a multilayered wrapper that secures the CD-ROM content. SafeDisc is currently being utilized by TalonSoft, GT Interactive, Interplay, Microprose, Red Storm and Take Two Interactive.

[Shabubu]

They probably mean to implement Safedisc V2. Been a while since I've copied such a disc but from what I remember the cd has weak sectors that cause the cdreader to lose tracking and so the read process takes a stupidly excesive length of time. The resultant disc image is usually autocorected by the burner and the disc produced is different enough from the original as to be detected. Fade works using this system, but instead of refusing to work the program is allowed to run, but is set up to gradually deteriorate with use. thus for the system to work fore DVD the playback software would have to support the copy protection. Fade was first used on Operation Flashpoint, the developers felt that you couldn't stop piracy, but this way the copy wasn't seen to be broken till too late, and the customer got a game demo.

[alexnoe]

There is really long thread in the Technical Formum on CDFreaks (http://club.cdfreaks.com/search.php?action=showresults&searchid=554163&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending) and a Tool with source (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/WSS/index-eng.html) I've written to demonstrate how to detect and how to syntesize weak sectors
Been a while since I've copied such a disc but from what I remember the cd has weak sectors that cause the cdreader to lose tracking and so the read process takes a stupidly excesive length of time.It often just results in a simple read error

[Doobie]

Safedisk is not SafeDVD.

And, the article must mean software on DVDs, not movies on DVDs. There is no way that FADE could work on a DVD player that is not designed to support such crippling.

FADE is not any sort of copy protection. It's just that after the software fails to detect the original disk, by whatever technique, instead of telling the user to insert the CD, it lets software work for a while without the original CD, sort of as a demo.

Although, I wonder if the user is going to be informed about what's going on. Will the software let the user initially think that the disk was copied without problems? When weird behavior starts, will the software tell the user what's happening or just let the user think the program is buggy?

[Doom9]

Doobie: the article was quite clear that SafeDVD means Fade for movie discs... there's absolutely no ambiguity in terms on that account.. even the article tagline talks about DVD movies that start to deteriorate. I wouldn't be so quick to discard something as impossible just because you cannot imagine how it works (and as I've repeatedly stated, I don't know how it works either and I'm sceptical as to whether it can be achieved at all.. but they managed to screw the audio CD standard to put copy protection on it, so the same could happen to DVDs as well).

[alexnoe]

And, the article must mean software on DVDs, not movies on DVDs. There is no way that FADE could work on a DVD player that is not designed to support such crippling. If anyone had told you 5 years ago that it is possible to construct data many cd writers cannot properly write you would not have believed that either, would you.

We'll see what they come up with, if they come up with anything at all

[bartman123]

I have to agree with doom9 on this one. I cannot see any way a DVD could be crippled with the FADE system.

Copy protection for games is one thing, since you are running the game from a PC which, by nature, is a fully programmable device and has long term storage. In short, a PC can remember how many times you have played a FADE protected game.
The vast majority of DVD players out there perform only one function which is playing DVD's. The limited programability can be easily overcome by ejecting the DVD or turning off the power since DVD players generally do not have any form of long term storage, hence it is impossible for it to "remember" if the DVD is being played for the first time or the tenth time. The exception to this, of course, is software players on your PC.

I have no doubts that someone will try munging the format like they did with audio CD's, but as we have seen in that arena the moment a new copy protection scheme is brought out, it is defeated. The losers in all this will be the average joe that buys a legitimate DVD and finds that it doesn't work in his DVD player because it is out of spec.

my $0.02

[Doobie]

Audio CD players and CD drives are more different that DVD players and drives thus offering more room for ad hoc audio CD copy protection exploits. I think the absense of improvised DVD copy protection is explained by this.

FADE works with games because FADE is really just a function of the game when the original CD is not detected. With DVD movies, 3rd-party software plays the movie so there's no place for FADE feature. Likewise, there is no software loaded to detect that the DVD is a copy, in the first place.

[Doom9]

Audio CD players and CD drives are more different that DVD players and drives thus offering more room for ad hoc audio CD copy protection exploits. I think the absense of improvised DVD copy protection is explained by this.
State your source. From my personal experience I'd say it's quite the opposite.. just look at all the DVD movies that don't work on a bunch of players. So much for everybody sticking to a common standard. And let's not forget that copy protected audio CDs also do not work on many car CD players, standalone DVD players, and PCs without having any explicit hardware or software support for the copy protection mechanism.

[M1ckey M0use]

What i've read about Fade for DVD's is that it checks if all audio tracks are still on the DVD, if not they choose a different playlist so that the movie plays till a defined point.

I think this method can be used if you strip things (like audio tracks) from a DVD to get it on a 4,7 Gb disc but keep the complete menu and stuff.

An easy way to bypass this (i think) is to do a movie only rip.

my 2 cents

[alexnoe]

That means it won't work on dual layer dvd±r discs :-) Anyway, please explain how that could possibly work on a dvd player.... it is something I believe not before I see it

[Cross]

IMHO the goal of all these copy protection schemes is not to make copying impossible, is to make it harder and to keep the piracy below a certain %. They can use every subtle way to make a copied DVD play in wrong way on a standard DVD player, but they will never stop the hong kong or korea based commercial pirate from extracting the whole thing, create horrible menus and sell thousands of thousand copies of their "original" new version worldwide. But this is something they know, and is a crime. I sell video games, and I know the safedisk on codemasters games like "Operation Flashpoint" or "Football manager" has helped stopping some teens making a copy for a friend, but on the P2P networks at last you will find any kind of crack or a way to have your working copy of everything. They WILL find for sure some way to make your DVD standalone go crazy reading a copy of a DVD, but as I said this is only to keep piracy under control. The real war will be on the next video format, and the original films have a lot of resolution to make another generation of "super DVD" in super hi res. For videogames they have won, and few people has realized the truth. No one can play Star Wars Galaxies with a copy and no one will be able to play a copy in the future because in the future (Far? Near? Who knows?) all of the games will be interacting with a server even for single player games and you will have to pay to keep your account alive. But non-interactive stuff is at the present time "de facto" public domain.
Only the price and the quality will be the parameter by which all people will decide to have the original or a copy.

If i was the invisible man, i will pay to enter a theatre.
Cross

[alexnoe]

They WILL find for sure some way to make your DVD standalone go crazy reading a copy of a DVD,Exactly this is the point i'm not convinced about, unless someone comes up with a good explanation.

[mpucoder]

As always I take a wait and see attitude, but I have my doubts about Fade working on DVDs as it does on games. As stated above, DVDs don't have long term storage (except juke boxes, some of which store away the jacket picture).

Making a DVD that can't be copied by one or more of the one-click programs is probably possible by exploiting some weakness in them. Of course, that would lead to a new version of the one-click that fixes the problem, leading to the next round of exploits.
Even detecting (how, I don't know) the absence of an audio or subpicture stream would make life difficult for a lot of backup programs.

But what about reauthoring? What could they possibly do to make a movie stripped down to elementary streams and authored with a growing number of programs fail?

[int 21h]

My thought is that this will be some sort of a logic based system in the IFO, much like RCE is really just logic commands...

[Joe Fenton]

Originally posted by alexnoe
That means it won't work on dual layer dvd±r discs :-) Anyway, please explain how that could possibly work on a dvd player.... it is something I believe not before I see it

That would involve the DVD navigation system. It is composed of a emulated processor and instruction sequence so that complex titles and special features can be implemented. It's rather limited in what it can do... read files, jump to different instruction locations, check the input, play sequences... basically what you need to make DVD navigation work. Using this system, it would be easy to do something like check the size and location of program sequences and then do something like only show the first few chapters instead of the whole movie.

Of course, that leads into what the navigation system is looking for. It would have to be something affected during a copy or it would only work on dual-layer DVDs. If you ripped the DVD, I don't see it affecting the rip at all.

[Lord of the Discs]

AFAIK, if the size and location of program sequences are wrong, the
only thing a DVD-player would do is to crash (hang up, stop playing).

Anybody feel free to correct me if I´m wrong.

LotD

[cypher_soundz]

isn't there already FAKE chapters etc to foil one click solutions? i can't see a way that they would be able to actually stop backing up of a dvd , ripping the movie and then creating the menus , or just keeping the movie would foil any copy production . The only way i can see how they could do it , is if they ship a midget with ever dvd, after inserting the dvd and midget would take it back out , inspect the dvd and if it was copied it would eat it :p but shhh lets hope they don't develop this :D

Regards
cyph

[ultimatebilly]

First I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all facts of this discussion, because I didn't had the time to fully read every bit of it (I'm at work...).
I could imagine a system that would work with the current DVD-standard and would basically do the following:
If you select to play the movie, then a pre-command jumps to the first audio-track.
Here a GPRM is changed, and the processor jumps to the next audio-stream, changes another GPRM and so on...
In the end, it jumps to a dummy-PGC, that checks if certain GPRMs are set, if yes, it plays the movie, if not, it plays a seamless branching version with parts of the movie missing, or only a part of the movie or black subpictures over parts with big red letters reading "Copying kills our sales, buy the original, the special edition, the superbit release and the collectors edition, and wait for the HDTV-release with WMv9!!! And, by the way, if you destroy your shift-keys immediately, we may consider not to sue you."

Do you think that or something like that would be possible or not?
And please note that the last time I have authored anything is probably already a year ago, so if I'm not making any sense at all, please just politely ignore me :D

Greetings,

Ultimatebilly!

PS.: Re-authoring would be possible of course, but DVD2One et al would probably didn't work correctly...

[cypher_soundz]

LMAO, i like the text it would display!
Could some one with alot of experience in authoring try this? on a small clip?

Regards
cyph

[ultimatebilly]

I actually forgot a line:
"Part 3 and 4 of this movie are due to summer 2004 and 2005, if commercially successful we will consider parts 5 and 6 for the following years. Please support the production of these movies by ripping out your shift-keys immediately!"

[bartman123]

A logic based system may work if the user ripped the whole DVD but left stuff out. It wouldn't work if someone were to re-author the DVD or to shrink the DVD including all the extras + audio.

With the recent announcement about dual layer recordable media I forsee a future where someone wanting a copy of a movie would simply rip an image and burn it.....programs like DVD2One and DVD Shrink would become historical curiosities.

The DVD industry I think will resign to the fact that IP security on DVD Video titles is very weak and there isn't much that can be done about it. The consequences are that DVD's will either ship with 'Value added' features to entice people to make a legitimate purchase or an attempt will be made to cripple the disc in some fashion......hopfully the former will prevail.

Blueray, while an exciting technology, has come too quickly to be the next media format. Most people I know are only just getting into the DVD scene and I feel that many will be reluctant to turf their DVD player just to have the next format. However, when Blueray players are intorduced, there will be a lot of thought put into methods of securing the data contained on the disc.....however as the saying goes "If I can see it, I can copy it". I'll give the format a month or two before the security is cracked somehow

[ultimatebilly]

That you can copy everything you can see is correct of course...
But that doesn't necessarily mean that you can make digital copies of it, and that is the problem...
One approach of making copying unattractive is to "close the analogue hole", you can not even copy to VHS then.

Maybe THEY will in a not so far future only build and support standalone players with IEEE.1394 (firewire) output, that is heavily encrypted, only works for one TV (includes some authentification mechanism like PGP or something) and so on...
You can of course copy that by filming it from your TV, but the quality will suck of course.
And the real problem is, that they only have to include the most simple form of copy protection, and you are not allowed to investigate into, build, talk about, think about, hear about or tell anyone about tools that could eventually break this protection in europe and in the USA.
Of course there will be gifted and dedicated people who will find a way to make digital copying possible, but it probably will be very hard, and take much longer than breaking CSS did (they probably won't allow software DVD players for the next format, and when, only with authentification over the internet).

And the thing about digital watermarking is not that they can find out who made the copy, but if they search one's house for whatever reason they make up, and find a DVD which has a few copies distributed around the net, this person is really f*cked...

[Cross]

In the future, there will be more and more display devices that accept digital video signals. I'm not really sure, but i think that even now composite video signals (tho one that carries red/green/blue connectors) carries digital video data. If there is digital video data that goes from one equipment to a digital capable display device, like a plasma TV or the like, you could intercept it and record it. Much like you can with the digital audio data from an optical out connector of a DVD standalone or from the S/PDIF. And this without limitation of resolution/format. You could then recompress in another format of your choice. And the watermarking could not stand the compression and go lost... (i dont think there is some watermarking technique that can undergo some heavy filtering/compression/adjusting,cropping/resizing and still be there) and i dont think that no one will be able to remove it and solve the problem. And what about HDTV streams from sat TV? I can record it because of the time-shifting right I have, and I can get a recording from a friend because maybe I had not time to record it myself, so I can have legally a copy of whatever goes on air without any limitation in a digital format that sooner or later will be better than DVD quality (the same i think is for digital radio). So, as I said before, all non-interactive digital entertainment products ARE PUBLIC DOMAIN de facto, at least the moment they go on air. Well, at least is my humble opinion.

Cross

[cypher_soundz]

If fire wire etc did come in to effect , there will be ways to defeat the copy protection , like the government today who wants to find the information in a pgp encrypted document , they don't set about cracking the file. They monitor emails, and try and guess the keys rather than cracking the encryption. I can't see why some one could not just pair the video device with a "box" which then instead of outputting to the screen would output to another device? Also the water marking company that is bring new video water marking out (see doom9 news) says that due to the basis of the water marking, heavy compression / filtering / adjusting will not effect it http://www.verance.com/technology/index.html . Still i think there still is hope! :D

Regard
Cyph

[ultimatebilly]

I agree that it still will be possible, but it will be extremely hard, and will take more time then cracking CSS did.
And something like a box to descramble the signal would be illegal, IIRC even some macrovision-removing devices have been declared illegal lately.
What I'm afraid of is for example a pair of key-cards which are handed out for every household, one for your standalone and one for your TV, and the key-card, once inserted into the devices, trigger some mechanism that blocks the devices forever for other key-cards.
Than the signal is encrypted by the key on the one keycard, and decrypted by the other keycard.
And THEY would just had to patent every algorithm usable for that cards, and you would not be able to develop custom cards (which would be illegal anyways). Maybe I'm getting a little too paranoid here, maybe not... :(
Of course everything is crackable, but not by every person, and if they find ways to restrict the information about mechanisms to break that protection, then the great majority of us won't be able to make use of it.

[Phanton_13]

In the last we can hack de TV for optain a unencripted signal, this isn´t very dificult and in reality is more dificult to prevent it. For the video watermarking exist one metode, I saw this metode in a photoshop pluging, they only read the watermark, process de image to make a image with only the watermark and delete de watermark using this image for removes it.

[specise_8472]

Originally posted by ultimatebilly


Maybe THEY will in a not so far future only build and support standalone players with IEEE.1394 (firewire) output, that is heavily encrypted, only works for one TV (includes some authentification mechanism like PGP or something) and so on...



DigitalVHS already does this - Tapes/Disks are encrypted, and only in conjunction with a HDTV can they be played. The TV has the decryption code built into it. And some pretty advanced handshaking tales place before playing.

To me FADE is like the NETFLICK format. Every DVD/CD degrades as it is read. All you do is change the dye to degrade as the laser reads it. Very useful for Rental shops - don't bother taking the movie back, as it will crap out within 3-4 plays.

If the protection is in the Command Sequence Programming then IFO Edit should take care of that. Of course they could add new commands (Similar protection to Games AKA bad sectors etc) and then force punters to buy new players that support these new commands - or they do not play everything in old players. (Then again, a BIOS update from player makers should add the new codes). I would see the MPAA supporting this as it is win win for them. People buy the new players (MPAA gets royalties on these as they licensed the code), or people go to the pictures to see movie (They still win), or people wait for TV viewing (with adverts - for the new players- inserted.)

Just my ideas.

[int 21h]

MPAA doesn't get royalties for players... MPEG-LA does...

[RadeonWhore]

But really if you can view/watch a movie you can pirate a movie, even with encryption etc, just means someone will hack a tv, and get an output just before its converted to analogue to be displayed

just my $0.02