Jon Lech Johansen, popularly known as DVD Jon due to a piece of software he wrote that was able to circumvent DVD encryption mechanisms, has released an update to the Google Video software which many are labelling as a hack.
Google's version of the software, which is based on the open source VLC video software, only allows users to playback videos which are hosted on the Google servers. The patch that DVD Jon has released allows you to playback video hosted on any server.
Given that the software is open source, it wasn't going to be a huge amount of time before someone got around to doing this. This exploit is nowhere near as interesting as the DeCSS software that Johansen released and was subsequently sued for, but you wouldn't be able to tell that from the media reaction.
Google don't seem to be hugely bothered about this patch for the time being, stating only that it has the potential to open up security holes in the users computer. If those scare tactics don't work on you, pop over to Johansen's blog site to grab your copy of the patch.
|
|
Reader Comments: 0
