[lordsiris]

I am looking for some advice on a problem I am currently having. I am a US military member serving oversea's in Europe and was recently in the United States to visit family. While in the US I purchased the "T2 : Extreme Edition" DVD that contains the entire movie in WMVHD. Well I returned to my home in Europe last week and tried to fire up the disk in my HTPC to my projector and it just sits at a screen telling me how DVD region coding works and then goes on to basically say that Disc 2 (The WMVHD disk) is not region coded but determines your location in other methods. It doesn't specifically say IP based but that is about the only way. Then it says to contact your content provider for the correct license file. Well it doesn't say who that is, but of course Google knows all and led me to a company called SyncCast. Well i contacted the company and below is both my original statement (kinda crude, I was a little pissed) and their response, which is basically the same thing the screen on the disk said:


"Dear **edited**,

Thank you for your purchase of the T2 Extreme DVD set. You are receiving

this email because you have expressed your concern in not being able to view

the DVD outside of the United States of America or Canada.


The T2 Extreme DVDs are Region 1 coded. If you require a code outside of

Region 1, you will need to confirm with your local retailer for availability

of the DVD in your area. Lions Gate Home Video distributes videos and DVDs

in the United States and Canada.


Disc 2 of the T2 Extreme DVD set is not limited to DVD-ROM Region codes to

determine your location to restrict license acquisition outside of the

United States and Canada. The content provider will not provide licenses if

you are outside of the countries listed above.


Sincerely,


Customer Care

SyncCast



-----Original Message-----

From: **edited** [mailto:**edited**]

Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 8:33 AM

To: [email protected]

Subject: T2 DVD DRM license not available


Hello,

I need a license file in order to play my T2: Extreme Edition DVD.

Evidently your DRM checks country based on IP address and will not allow

me to download the file. This is unacceptable!! I purchased this DVD a

couple weeks ago only for the HD portion contained on the second disk.

I am a military member serving oversea's in Italy and my IP address is

comprised accordingly. I read a couple articles online stating that the

customer could request a license file via an email address that would be

given if the license is not able to be aquired. Well this disk doesn't

give any email address and after a little research it is your company

that is providing the DRM. Please help!!


**edited**"


I guess my question is how should I procede now, caulk it up as a victory for the DMCA? I know the value of the disk is only around $20 but I guess it's the whole ideal that pisses me off!!


Any idea's??


Thanks

 

[DFA]

No idea how you might resolve this but thanks for the heads up on DRM being able to know where your PC is located. Jeeez louise. WMV T2 is hopefully one of the few with this issue since it is a "phone home" type DRM. I hope "on-disk" DRM will be more merciful. Garsh.


DFA

 

[Axatax]

Some things to try from a laymen's point of view:


1) Try to find a free anonymous proxy server located in the US or Canada and point the player to this address. Some of the more sophisticated anonymous proxies can act as a full internet gateway via SSH tunnel. This might be necessary depending on what protocols the various free proxies handle. Many of the freebies are limited to HTTP.


2) Get a friend in the states to setup a VPN or SSH server and authenticate the disk through this connection.


3) Sign up for a free or relatively inexpensive state-side dial-up ISP - something like a NetZero or PeoplePC. Dial into this account to authenticate the disk then drop the connection.


4) Create a DNS entry for your IP address with stateside contact information.

 

[vairulez]

another way to make it work :

1/change your drive region to 1

2/ find a proxyserver in the us for your internet connection


that should do the trick

 

[lordsiris]

Thanks for the suggestions!


I tried a load of proxy servers and was able to browse the web with them and verify that the "real IP" address was resolved to the proxy address in the US, but still no luck. The screen that used to come up with the "information" on how region coding now just comes up as "Forbidden (Error 403)". Figuring it must be the SSL stopping it through the proxy. I wasn't able to find a public https proxy server that worked.


I don't have a dial-up modem in order to try the other suggestion, but I am sure that would work.


I created a DNS entry on no-ip.com but it didn't seem to help at all.


Any other possible idea's??


Thanks


lordsiris

 

[E Jackson]

You know, this may not be as complicated as it seems. Perhaps the problem here is that "other ways" is being assumed as "IP address".


This really doesn't make sense, though. If a person does not have an Internet connection, are they unable to play the disc?


Try this: change your time zone to one in the U.S. Just a thought.

 

[Sherbona]

No, an internet connection is required to acquire the license that allows playing this disc. This has been discussed extensively here before, search out the big T2 thread. lordsiris, if you can find that big T2 thread for ideas - though it sounds like maybe they are now blocking more of the proxy servers.


Personally I love the wmvhd discs and don't mind too much those with on-disc drm, but I refuse to purchase any content that requires an internet connection to periodically ask for a license just to play something that I already purchased.

 

[jpadua]

I was able to watch my T2 Extreme DVD WMV the first few times when I purchased it last year, all I had to do was to use a US based proxy server.

Now since they implimented the new DRM thing, I cant watch it anymore through proxy server to get a licences.. any other tips to use?