HD-DVD and Blu-Ray AACS DRM Cracked

EGSonikku writes "According to this article on Endgadget, the AACS DRM used in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray has been cracked. The program allows one to decrypt and dump the video for play on a users hard drive, or it can be burned to a blank HD-DVD and played on a stand-alone player. According to the accompanying video, a source release for the program will be made available in January. Time to get that $200 Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive?" Warning: this link contains video.

Comments

Re:Cheers!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to me, it isn't. This will help speed up the adoption of these formats. I'd like them both to totally fail, due to their restrictive DRM. As long as the formats enjoy some success, the content providers will keep pushing for the strong DRM.

Re:Not really cracked, more like circumvented

[FuturePastNow]

According to the program's creator:

I was very surprise to realize that the title key is there, in memory!

Older systems make Trusted Computing their bitch. Oh yeah.

HDCP

[StreetStealth]

It seems to me most people are seeing this as a means to:

A) Place-shift HD-DVD content (despite current storage constraints)
B) Pirate HD-DVD content (despite current bandwidth constraints)

when I see the much more immediately relevant issue being that of HDCP: If this crack can be rolled into something on the order of a VLC plugin, there's a chance I'll actually be able to use my technically-more-than-capable, yet not-a-member-of-the-HDCP-club LCD display to view commercial 720p content.

Re:Wrong conclusion...

[j-turkey]

The most basic acceptance test of any moral or social philosophy is whether it can be applied generally. Yours boils down to: I do what I think is correct. Okay, but please don't call the cops when someone punches you in the face and takes your wallet, because I am sure that it was a perfectly acceptable action to the perpetrator.

You make a good argument, and I've heard it before. However, black and white interpretation of the law tends to fail (especially when you equate morality and law). I'll fall back on an analogy here: If you drive, do you ever speed? The law says that you cannot drive at a rate higher than the posted speed limit. However, on most major US highways, traffic tends to move at around 5% higher than the posted speed limit. Driving at the posted speed limit would cause a dangerous situation, whereas operating your vehicle in a manner consistent with the flow of traffic is a safer way to travel. Is speeding immoral? If so, should we just not drive until everyone else slows down?

Many people make informed decisions to break the law. Whether or not this is a conscious act of civil disobedience, it is (in many cases) still a form of civil disobedience. Putting this into the context of the American alcohol prohibition, a large scale amount of civil disobedience fueled organized crime to fulfill the demand for alcohol, and the law was eventually shown to be unreasonable. A freedom limiting law was abolished because sufficient numbers of people chose to break that law. This did not cause any crumble of society, and did not turn morality upside down.

In any case, I respect your position, but disagree with your absolute reasoning. IP license violation isn't the same as DUI, and it's not punching someone in the nose and running off their wallet. Laws like the American DMCA have unjust provisions. The grandparent poster is acting in good faith, and harming nobody. Perhaps the gpp is partaking in a phenomena of culture redefining law.

Re:Not really cracked, more like circumvented

[javilon]

When a couple or three keys for _hardware_ players leak the content providers will have to make their minds up and decide if they revoke them.

If they decide to do so, I can tell you that the whole scheme will go down. There will be people with bought and paid hardware made useless. This will be a very good example when explaining to people why DRM is a problem.

Also, if I have learned something in this thread is that if you hack a player, you just have to keep it secret and only release the disk keys for every disk that comes out to the market. If the RIAA doesn't know what player has been hacked, they can't revoke its key. Having one player hacked will invalidate the whole schema as long as the RIAA doesn't know wich one is it.

I am the owner of a High Definition 50 inches TV, with only DVI input. That I see as a good thing. I will not be tempted by the new High Definition *paid* content. There is no way I will be paying another 3000 for a new set just because the content providers refuse to show their content on my perfectly good one. This is also a good way to explain people what DRM is about.