Encryption

[WYC]

Hi guys,

Have spent the last couple of days on the phone to different companies about getting some form of subscription for music and videos, and making our machine a legal one.

Basically they have said that without a form of encryption for the files that is unique to the machine they aren't able to do anything for us due to the requirements placed on them by the record companies.

Is there a way for freebox to be used with some form of encryption, be it a serial number reader from the files or are there plug-ins for media player that would effectively do the same thing.


Any info would be great guys,

Cheers,
Abe

[coffee]

I have the same problem. The record companies whats the music encrypted and this is a problem right now. I have asked Barry for this once but he wasn't interrested in having a look at it.

[Barcrest]

To do this you would want to encrypt the drive with the music on, if you can find a system to do this that you are happy with I will then add support to E-Touch to use the required key to unlock the drive. Although i think you could set up the PC to prived the unlock code to the drive.

If the actual files themselves need to be DRM'd then it isn't anything I can do, I think coffee got the wrong impression from me. It wasn't that I am not interested in doing this but I don't have the knowledge as i would have to encrypt each file and decrypt it before sending it to WMP and I just don't have any ideas of how to even go about this which is why i offered up the encrypted drive solution.

Here in the U.K. the laws are not as strict and the music doesn't have to be encrypted.

[WYC]

so in lame mans terms, you are saying that the whole drive containing the music could be encrypted, and that freebox could be configured with a serial number or some form of unique id code.

and that this code would be issued by the program when it's opened to 'unlock' the drive and then re lock it when the program is shut.

One of the companies SBA Music, said that there might have been a slight possibility that a contract could be drawn up stipulating that the music wasnt to be copied and all that du-dar.

But if what i said above is what you are talking about and could be done, i reckon that it would almost be enough to satisfy their own licensing requirements for the music.

Am i on the right track?

EDIT: talking to a mate, he said windows EFS encryption system, but that would mean that the user would have rights to copy when logged in. so no good.

However i found this truecrypt program which talks about keyfiles, could freebox launch this key file in its startup routine and therefore un encrypt the files only to freebox.
www.truecrypt.org is their website. Most of it is mumbo jumbo to me would greatly apreciate it if sumone with some more computer knowledge could have a look and spell it out for me.

cheers big time
Abe

[Barcrest]

The issue would be that indeed the drive would be unlocked when the jukebox was logged in. However it would only unlock on that machine. If you have locked windows down sufficiently that explorer cannot me accessed then they wouldn't be able to copy anything off the machine. You just need to disable a few things to lock it down, i will look at that web site you posted up now.

EDIT:
I think you need to download and test that truecrypt out with a small sample of music.

[WYC]

i dnt beleive that it would be a problem with the drive being open whilst freebox is up seeing as fullscreen effectively does away with access to explorer, as well as it is being hidden.

The only problem is that this machine is also used for conferences and therefore the conference user has to have explorer and therefore has access to the whole thing.

I shall download nd trial that truecrypt this weekend, the jukebox has gone down again so i have to take it home anyways. see if i can knock off two birds with one stone

cheers,

[Barcrest]

If you want to lock down the machine you don't want any access to explorer, you also need to bios password it and disable the keyboard.

[WYC]

it doesn't have a keyboard, which is a start, but killing explorer nd pasword before boot is going to far. It is defeating the purpose.

So if i find a program that will just encrypt / disable access to the drive holding the music, you would be able to incorporate into freebox's startup a line that would execute the encryption key

if so the rest i shall work out at some stage nd let you know what i need.

cheers