BBC streaming iPlayer for iPhone, iPod touch quickly hacked again

“Just hours after the BBC said it had fixed the iPlayer streamed TV service to prevent DRM-free file downloads, a London-based programmer has bypassed the new protection,” Marcus Browne reports for ZDNet UK.

“Paul Battley, a developer for crowd-sourced reviews site Reevoo, wrote on his blog on Thursday that he had ‘defeated’ the fixed iPlayer code,” Browne reports. “Speaking to ZDNet.com.au’s sister site ZDNet.co.uk on Friday, Battley said that he had asked a colleague to use an iPod Touch, combined with a debugging proxy, to watch communications made by a legitimate iPlayer access. Battley then used plug-in requests to look through the Javascript to work out the changes that had been made to the iPlayer code. He then rewrote his own original Ruby iPlayer interface ‘hack’ code.”

“The iPlayer hack released on Thursday can run on Linux, Windows and Mac operating systems, Battley claimed, and circumvents Windows-based digital rights management,” Browne reports.

Full article here.

This BBC iPlayer is so easy to hack, it almost makes Windows look secure.

21 Comments

  1. Who cares.
    The BBC is lame.

    Until the UK/England/Britain/whatever stops taxing people for every T.V. <not tele> they own the BBC will always suck. Time for the old country to have their own revolution.

  2. Have you ever watched a TV program without ad breaks, what, without breaks, no, you don’t mean, a story without ads, no, you can’t mean, no don’t tease me, it can’t be possible, a story from beginning to end without an advert. The tax of 2 bucks a week brings life in cold blood, doctor who, east enders, newsnight, the passion, eggheads and horizon to name but a few. Advertfarkingtizing free.

  3. All TV shows I watch are ad free-it’s called eyetv software and editing.

    As for the BBc shows I want here in the States-it’s called bit torrent. Apparently many nice Brits record the shows and put them up so people who don’t want to wait 2 years to see the latest doctor who, IT crowd, wire in the blood, hyperspace, etc. can watch them.

    Thanks Brits!

  4. BBC sucks, by trying to be ‘impartial’, they just look a bit stupid, especially this article:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7295859.stm

    I mean, talk about plugging something that doesn’t exist! Surface? I have yet to actually see one, see a review of a table. iPod touch and iPhone are in millions of people’s hands, but the BBC, thanks to their ‘partnership’ with Micro$oft, deem it suitable to talk to ‘Kristin Alexander, head of research and planning for Microsoft Surface’, about a product that has yet to see the light of day.

    Details of M$-BBC partnership:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5390000.stm
    http://www.betanews.com/article/BBC_Microsoft_Sign_Strategic_Alliance/1159460142

    Sad, really sad.

  5. $2 a week, I don’t think so.

    I think a TV license is about £139 now so thats $280 a year. That would be $5.40ish a week. Doesn’t sound like a lot but even if you NEVER watch BBC1,2,3,4 or any other BBC stations you still have to pay it! Its cheaper to have a black and white license though so if I turn the colour down on my 37″ plasma maybe I’ll fool them! ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />

  6. “It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both
    incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by
    twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.”

    – Rod Serling

    MW ‘free’ – as in, no such thing. Skinflints get the crap they deserve.

  7. “BBC sucks”

    “state sponsored propaganda”

    you 2 ever watch the news in the states? rotflmao….

    i know, i know, you are both devoted Faux News viewers, right?

    “BBC sucks, by trying to be ‘impartial’, they just look a bit stupid,”

    kinda like watching american news invite the same 11 global warming deniers on every damn story?

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