[mythtv-users] cablecard

[Brad Templeton]

On Thu, Apr 07, 2005 at 03:35:27PM -0400, David Wood wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, Gabe Rubin wrote:
> 
> >As others have said, it is not just the money that is an issue.  They
> >have no desire to issue a license to open source projects as this
> >would compromise the very encryption (whether it would or not is
> >debatable, but they certainly would believe it would).
> >
> >Even if $100,000 were a drop in the bucket (and I wish I was in that
> >position), that is not the major stumbling block.  They WILL NOT issue
> >a license to myth type projects.
> 
> There is this bizarre false sense of security with closed-source apps, as 
> if there is any kind of chain of trust in the media center software 
> stack...

As noted, one of the chains of trust they plan is, reportedly as
follows.   Each individual user will be issued keys to give them
access to the decrypted data.   If those keys are reverse engineered
out, and make it out into the wild, they get put on a revocation list,
which is broadcast by the TV stations on a regular basis.   Once
received, the key no longer works.

So to make this work, you would need to buy a copy of MCE, for example,
crack it to extract its keys, and use those keys in your copy of
Myth or other such software on that particular cablecard equipment.

If they go further, and tie the key to your particular equipment,
you would be unable to use them with others, though that is a fun
logistic nightmare.    If not, you could share your keys with a
limited number of trusted friends to be sure they never made it out
into the wild.