You may or may not be aware that Adobe softwares Replay Media Catcher is used as the vehicle for selling movies and TV shows on the net from the major broadcasting sites. But it has been revealed that it has a security flaw that allows viewers to download content for free from Amazon’s video service.

The security hole also as a bonus allows viewers to record the streaming content too.

“This was designed stupidly,” said an expert of the Adobe bug, which effects the companys Flash video servers. Reuters was able to use Replay Media Catcher to record video from Amazon amongst other websites.

Heres how the bug works

By grabbing a copy of the free demo version of Replay Media Catcher you can watch everything thats recorded.

Amazon’s Adobe-powered Video On Demand service allows viewers to watch the first two minutes of a movie or TV show for free. It charges up to $3.99 to rent a movie for 24 hours and up to $14.99 to download a movie permanently.

Amazon starts to stream the entire movie during the free preview, even though it pauses the video on the Web browser after the first two minutes, so that users can start watching the rest of the video right away once they pay.

“It’s the traditional trade-off, convenience on the one hand and security on the other.” said Ray Valdes, analyst at research group Gartner.

However, even if a user doesn’t pay, the stream still sends the movie to the video catching software, but not the browser.

Amazon’s Video On Demand is the Web retailer’s answer to declining sales of packaged movies and TV shows and the growth in demand for digital content that can be viewed and stored on the Internet.

Unlike Amazon, videos from Hulu.com, NBC.com and CBS.com are already free although the TV programs are interrupted by commercials. However, the stream catching software separates the commercials and the program into two separate folders, so people can keep the programs without the advertising.

Hulu.com, a video Web site owned by News Corp’s Fox network and General Electric’s NBC Universal, was the big networks’ answer to YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site where many users began uploading TV shows and other content owned by media companies.

The networks scrambled to post videos on their own sites in a bid to capture another stream of advertising revenue from a growing audience, but they have struggled with how best to show commercials which fund the programing when played on the Web.

YouTube, which started the online video boom before being bought by Google Inc for $1.65 billion in November 2006, has also struggled to cash in on its popularity even though its user base continues to mushroom.

So in a nutshell heres how it works:-

1. Start recording with Replay Media Catcher.
2. Go to your favorite video website, and start playback of a clip.
3. Once the content starts recording, close your browser, then open the download folder (Click on Tools | Open Storage Directory).
4. Open the Flash Video Player that comes free with Replay Media Catcher
(Start | Programs | Replay Media Catcher).
5. Drag the file you are downloading into the player, and enjoy instant, ad-free TV!
6. You can close the FLV player at any time—Replay Media Catcher will keep recording your video, ad-free.

Well it just goes to show that everyone makes cock ups, even a massive company like Adobe. However whilst we feel sorry for them. Surely we can feel sorry whilst watching the latest movie!

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