NBC and Fox’s Hulu video service has easily compromised content
By Jonathan Schlaffer
A co-venture between NBC and News corp. has produced the online video service we know as Hulu. The service offers full-length episodes of shows that air or have aired on several networks including, NBC, Fox, Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, and Oxygen. There is much more to come in the future and there are even a few movies to choose from. All the content is offered with limited commercial interruption. One problem with the service is that it is very easy to download the content and save it to your hard drive.
Hulu was in a private beta until recently where it was made available to the general public. Now that everyone has access to the site, it has gone through a few changes. Users now have the choice of limited commercial interruption or no commercial interruption after watching a longer (around 90 seconds) advertisement. Site navigation has improved as well, the “movie” section is a new feature. There are additional improvements that I have not mentioned here but there is one glaring oversight, the content is not copy protected at all.
The more unscrupulous Internet user would find it very easy to use a utility like Replay Media Capture which has the ability to download any flash content you are watching and save it to your hard drive. Utilities like it work with any site that has flash content; it would also work on YouTube, for example.
Replay Media Capture can continue downloading the content even if you navigate away from or close the web site you were watching it on; files are saved as FLV (Flash Video) format. The FLV video can be converted into other formats with several different programs. This particular program was able to filter out the advertisements as well.
The problem isn’t that it’s relatively easy to download the content from Hulu; the problem is that you shouldn’t be able to do it at all since the material on Hulu is copyrighted.
Someone at the company needs to be made aware of these shortcomings and fix the problem before people start exploiting the service and distributing its content illegally. As long as you continue to just stream the content without saving it as a FLV file to your hard drive, you’re fine but the minute you download (and save) material from the site you may find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
Thanks go out to an anonymous reader for this tip (you know who you are).
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Entry was posted
on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
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March 19th, 2008
I think you’re off base here.
The impetus for Hulu was a recognition that people are using torrents to get TV online. They don’t want to be bound to the old guard’s spoon fed content. What makes Hulu worth it is the fact that it’s streaming, on-demand stuff. They’re not bombarding us with commercials (30s max, a few times an hour), so that’s not too bad.
It’s not worth ripping the stuff unless you plan on archiving it, and then you may as well just grab a torrent since you won’t have to post-process that.
I imagine with some clever chickenfoot or greasemonkey scripting you could do a mass rip of your playlist, but to what effect? It’s available online as a massive, streamable DVR in great quality. It’s an awesome way to view TV shows, if you’ve got an HTPC (and perhaps even with some gaming consoles?).
I don’t think it’s worth trying to address this, especially with the industry move away from DRM in the first place.
May 21st, 2008
My experience with Hulu has been mixed. I like the content, but my download bandwidth is such that I often get frustrating pauses in playback. I would like a way to capture (or even just cache a portion of) the video on my hard drive so that I could playback the video without all the pauses. I don’t want an archive, just a smooth viewing experience. I guess that still makes me unscrupulous. So be it!
June 22nd, 2008
This writer is an ass. The internet toothpaste is out of the bottle douche bag get with the times. You think you know something that Universal does not? Just like You Tube if they wanted to they could have made it harder for you to copy but they know that it’s part of the appeal.
July 18th, 2008
I absolutely disagree.
First off, I’m actually trying to disassemble the Hulu packets now to see how they work and it looks like they’ve put a lot of effort in making the location of the actual FLV files in their servers difficult to ascertain.
Secondly, and more important, there’s *absolutely no way* they’ll be able to prevent determined users from downloading the content. It’s the classic reason that DRM will never work; you have to give the user the encrypted (or restricted) content, the algorithm to decrypt (or view) it, and the key with which to do so, otherwise they can’t watch it. So at some point, the user gets the decrypted content, and at that point, it’s impossible to prevent them from recreating it as a file locally (short of a draconian hardware restriction system like “trusted computing”, but I think you’ll hear a lot of outrage if people can’t control their own computers).
DRM is a fool’s errand, and restricting the content to only be viewed online is just another form of DRM, waiting to be cracked.
August 29th, 2008
The “Betamax case” has already been adjudicated. Digital recordings of freely distributed Internet content is fair use, here, the same as video recordings of freely distributed TV broadcasts was fair use back then.
RE-distributing such copyrighted content is another matter entirely. Don’t mix up the two and you won’t become confused. :)
October 9th, 2008
Ok, so if Heroes comes on TV, and I tivo it, according to you, I’m “breaking the law”? What if I record it to my DVD recorder? Or my ancient VCR? What if I take the audio and video output from my laptop and record hulu shows in real time to my recorder. What’s the difference if I want to save it to my hard drive, convert it to iPod format and watch it on the train to work? I’ve watched the show and the commercials, and the show did it’s job. It delivered the commercials.
You need to educate yourself on fair use law that is already a dead horse that we keep beating and beating. This attempt to scare people into thinking that recording their favorite shows is “illegal” is rediculous. Fair use is the same, regardless of the format. Downloading it and putting out on your fileserver or p2p account for all the world to grab … granted that’s where the fair use stops, but a copy for your own personal viewing should never be considered illegal.
December 11th, 2008
you are such a tool. “you might find yourself on the wrong side of the law?” really? i’m sorry but at least this way i dont download EVERY show through torrents or other ways, and i do watch the commercials. but the fact that it can be downloaded is a fact of life. at the very worst i capture via screen grabbing video so….there’s nothing much to do against it.
what they should do is LET people download WITH commercials included…now that would be smart
December 25th, 2008
HEY SELF-RIGHTEOUS WINDBAG! Tell me how recording internet TV content is any different from recording network or cable TV? Those are both legal, and internet TV isn’t any different. I have a right to record what is broadcast. It’s not the same as recording rentals, so don’t even go there. If its being broadcast, I can damn well record it! If you don’t think it’s right, I don’t give a rat’s ass, because it’s NOT ILLEGAL.
January 23rd, 2009
hulu.com chooses to send the content of the flv file to my web browser — what business is it of theirs if I choose to discard it, or save it to my hard drive?
Also, why would anyone re-distribute their content when they can just watch it on hulu.com?
February 5th, 2009
Careful guys, or the Self-Righteous Windbags League Of Political Correctness will slap the totally worthless threat of a 1977 Swedish Interpol, CIA and Mickey Mouse Club fine on you of a HALF-MILLION dollars!
Just for watching some lousy TV episode or even lousier movie.
February 10th, 2009
Hulu is great I don’t have an awesome internet connection, but I can actually stream two different shows on different devices at the same time. DRM doesn’t work. Hulu makes it faster to watch the commercials then it is to steal it. If you want high quality you’ll probably just buy the DVD or BD.
March 31st, 2009
Anyone who tells me what to do with my computer, or, what to save or not save is a Nazi piece o garbage. Their houses should be invaded, and, their hard drives pumped and dumped to files for perusal by the SS (Secret Service, hm… those letters sound familiar, don’t they?)
May 25th, 2009
Replay Media Catcher will not record Hulu at least not on my computer for the last couple of months. Jaksta (www.jaksta.com) how ever records 2 streams one in better definition than the other … and its about $10 cheaper.
November 4th, 2009
Love hulu and I love best the fact that I can record all the movies I want on my pc with tunebite for later playback. Also, it converts the files ionto the formats I need.