Major Hacker Cracks Google Video
Jon Lech Johansen, “DVD Jon”, took just one day to build a crack to allow you to play video on your website using Google’s VLC-based player. This means you can publish video that will play on your webpage and will work for anyone who has Google’s player installed. I’m not sure anyone could see a problem with this crack. Jon famously worked on DeCSS and cracks for iTunes, AirPort Express and WMV9 in Linux.
(via PC Magazine)
UPDATE: See, Google doesn’t have a problem, but warns that it could break Google Video:
Update: Google puts out an official statement regarding this hack, saying “This modification of Google’s open source video viewer does not compromise the integrity and security of content available from Google Video in any way. We strongly advise Google Video users to not download this modification because it could result in security vulnerabilities on their computer and may disrupt their computer’s ability to access Google Video.”
(thanks to Google Blogoscoped)
UPDATE: Wow, talk about melodramatic. Possibly well-meaning, but way off in this case.
[…] his hack of Google Video lets any use the software to play a video on their webpage. From InsideGoogle : Jon Lech Johanse […]
Pingback by » Google Video Hacked - Search Engine Journal | June 28, 2005
Google Video - launched Monday, cracked Tuesday.
Google Video - launched Monday, cracked Tuesday.
Trackback by Alex Barnett blog | June 28, 2005
Oh come on, if you give someone a patch to an open source program to work with, it isn’t cracking, it’s just compiling.
Honestly, he probably changed the programs behavior within 10 minutes, lord knows any competent coder could have.
Comment by Chris DiBona | June 29, 2005
The program was open source. Any kid on the street who knows anything about programming could’ve done it if you asked him/her to.
The code was open for anyone to see and modify. That means anyone could see the code that checks if the video player is playing a video at google’s website or not and then modify it. Every programmer could do it if asked. This is not special.
Comment by Ryan | June 29, 2005