BBC iPlayer Fixed, Hacked Again
By Christopher Nickson
March 17, 2008
The BBC prevents DRM-free downloads, and immediately a hacker makes the service available not only for Windows but also Mac and Linux.
There was a big fuss when the BBC discovered its iPlayer service, under which users can download and watch programs for 30 days, could be hacked, the digital rights management bypassed and the shows kept indefinitely.
No sooner had they put a fix in place for that than developer Paul Battley announced he’d hacked the iPlayer, making it available for Mac and Linux (currently only Windows and iPhone is officially supported).
Battley explained to ZDNet that he was able to hack by observing the legitimate communications between iPlayer and an iPod Touch. Using plug-in requests he was able to figure out what changes had been made to the code for iPlayer. Then he wrote his own hack code.
Battley said,
"I did it mostly for entertainment and for the challenge of doing it. Also, I'm a Linux user, and the BBC iPlayer originally was only for Windows — I felt a bit alienated. The BBC released the iPhone version of iPlayer, and there's no Linux support."
The BBC has admitted it expects the service to be hacked again and again.