Reverse Engineer

Macrovision deals in licensing and copy protection technology. As a gamer, I recognize them because they produce SafeDisc, copy protection for some games. So what do I come across in checking jobs on Craigslist but this listing (you can also click the title of this post..blogger is so cool!).

Excerpts:

Responsibilities:
• To reverse engineering network protocols.
• To research, experiment, and document network protocols.
• To develop tools and methods for performing reverse engineering tasks.

Desired:
• P2P networks experience

Target Companies
• nVidia, Napster, Creative Labs, ATI, Roxio

They want to reverse engineer peer-to-peer networks, video/audio drivers, and CD burning? I can understand the first and the last - find a way to slow or prevent software from being shared on P2P networks as well as making games un-burnable (so you can't rip a copy for a buddy - I guess even with the prevalence of online activation via license key this has to be worried about). What's the deal with ATI, nVidia and Creative Labs (SoundBlaster) though? Somehow protect games so that audio won't play properly or video won't render correctly when copied? I'm far from experienced enough to make good guesses at what this means, but it should be interesting to see what comes out of Macrovision down the line.