Google video viewer cracked by DVD Jon

DVD Jon, a.k.a. Jon Lech Johansen, made a reputation when he participated in cracking the encryption used with today’s DVD-format, DeCSS. Since then DVD Jon has cracked Apple’s DRM-protection for iTunes online musicstore, but it didn’t stop there. Jon has namely in less than 24h after the launch, cracked Google’s Video Viewer system. DVD Jon has made a patch for Google Video Viewer that makes it possible for users to use Google’s plugin also for other material, I.e. material that is not located on Google’s servers.

“Johansen said the patch, which requires the .Net run-time framework, will remove Google’s restriction and allow the playback of video files that aren’t on the video.google.com server.”

Google says it is not a hack but a modification of the program that will not harm the Video Viewer’s software or the integrity of the code. However it doesn’t recommend using Johansen’s software to modify the plugin, which isn’t entirely unexpected.

Source: PCMag, ZDNet

:: DVD Jon’s blog “So Sue Me”