How do you fancy watching high quality premium movies and episodes of television shows for free on Amazon Video On Demand? I thought so. Then read on and find out how.
Amazon Video On Demand Free?
Amazon’s Video On Demand service is a fine addition to the line-up of companies offering movies and TV shows over the Internet. The one drawback it has it that it costs money to use it, with rental or owned options.
But, thanks to a combination of shoddy security from Adobe and some free software, it is entirely possible to bypass the payment part of the process and capture the content for free.
Adobe Flash
The security hole in Adobe’s Flash video servers came to light recently when tests showed that companies using the technology were at risk of giving their content away for nothing.
The problem exists because rather than encrypt video, Adobe’s player merely sends an order to the server to stop the video being viewed after a set length of time.
Free Preview = Free Content
Every movie and episode of a television show on Amazon Video On Demand allows users to watch a free two-minute preview. The preview then ends and you are given the choice of whether to purchase that content or not.
Rather than just sending a two-minute preview to the player, Amazon starts the full stream, which is then cut off after two minutes. This is done for customer satisfaction, so that they don’t have to wait ages for the content to start again after purchasing it.
Replay Media Catcher
However, this also allows people using media catching software such as Applian Technologies’ Replay Media Catcher to capture the whole stream for free, completely bypassing the buy or rent part of the transaction.
According to Reuters, Adobe issued a security bulletin to its customers earlier this month advising them to protect their online content. It seems Amazon didn’t take the hint.
Applian CEO Bill Dettering commented:
“Adobe’s (stream) is not really encrypted. One of the downfalls with how they have architected the software is that people can capture the streams. I fully expect them to do something more robust in the near future.”
Conclusions
Amazon would indeed be mad if it didn’t fix its system as quick as is humanly possible, but in the meantime, video content on the service is ultimately available for free to those who can be bothered to download the appropriate software.
This has to be a worry not only for Amazon but for the plethora of other video sites that rely on Adobe Flash to distribute their content. For us it just means we get to watch premium content for free without ever breaking the law.
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