TiVoToGo DRM Reportedly Cracked
According to TivoLovers, a livejournal Tivo blog, the TiVoToGo DRM protection which halted users’ attempts to play their TiVo Recordings on multiple devices has been cracked. The SourceForge page for the crack has C source available for download. Running the command line program on a .tivo file will convert it into a DRM-stripped MPEG file. Additional documentation on the project, as well as information about the algorithm used are available on the project’s wiki.
This breakthrough comes on the heels of tensions between entertainment studios and TiVo with the release of TiVo’s TiVoToGo service. Despite networks concern over mobile viewing of their content, TiVo has been snuggling up to networks providing commercial ratings and forced commercial viewing despite TiVo’s previous blind-eye towards the modding and hacking community. I think we’ll see a lot more regarding this powder keg of content distribution in the future. Keep checking back to laternerdz for more coverage.
Update: according to the project page, “The conversion still requires the valid MAK of the TiVo which recorded the file, so it cannot be used to circumvent their protection, simply to provide the same level of access as is already available on Windows.”