Some time ago, I read an interesting article on DRM. The gist of it was that any DRM on self-contained digital recordings can be cracked, because the concept is flawed. The recording must supply the player hardware with the encrypted data, the method of decryption and any decryption keys. All a hacker has to do is figure out how to become a listener into that conversation (between the recording/software and the player). He doesn't have to know anything about cryptology. Even if all that is exchanged is an index into a secret list of keys, the player would obviously need to know the contents of that secret list, and again, it's a matter of letting the player tell you what the list is. It's a matter of figuring out how to intercept the data stream, and making sense out of it, not decryption by the hacker.
In contrast, encryption succeeds when data files are sent encrypted from one person to another. Only the person at each end needs to know the encryption keys and encryption method. If the transfer is intercepted, there is no way to circumvent the heavy toil of encryption-code cracking, because all you have is the encrypted data, not the decryption instrument or keys.
