Just so this blog doesn’t turn into a one post per day, dvds I watch thing:

Let me link you to So Sue Me, the blog by DVD Jon. This guy’s main claim to fame is DeCSS, the software that broke DVD encryption, so nefarious consumers can excercise thier dastardly fair use rights on products they actually pay for. (There’s oversimplification and sarcasm there, I’ll let you sort of what bits are what.)

Since then, he’s has probably reverse engineered a dozen other “secure” encryption schemes, one especially notable one being Apple’s iTunes Music Store keys.

I wish I had the programming chops DVD Jon has - a while ago, I spent some time trying to figure out the [very] simple encryption used in Microsoft Access 2000 and later (earlier version were truly trivial, but 2000 and later were slightly more difficult). Although I got a partial solution that works in many cases, I just didn’t have the intellect or fortitude to completely break the code. It did enable me to better appreciate the efforts of those who can work that magic.