Posted May 2, 2007 09:48 AM by Josh Dreuth
The latest chapter in the fight against piracy is making its way into news headlines today, with the unofficial confirmation that a processing key for HD DVD titles (and possibly Blu-ray titles) was leaked onto the web. I say "unofficial" because while AACS has not confirmed its existence, or the amount of damage it will undoubtedly cause, they are not hesitating to issue cease and desist orders to every website and blog that posts the mysterious code. If their reaction is to be a judge of the impact, this is going to be a huge problem for movie studios.
The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is the one of the three anti-piracy tools available to Blu-ray studios in order to protect their intellectual property from being freely distributed against their will. Thus far, it has proven to be as effective as a screen door on a submarine. The first Title Key was discovered on the web in January, and it took them three months to address the issue - not exactly the definition of a prompt response. The problem was a memory leak in a popular PC software player which left the Title Keys (codes unique to each movie) readable with a memory dump. The April fix rejected those codes and required the software players to fix the leak.
More recently, an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on was modified to allow the computer to bypass the AACS system to some degree, paving the way for future applications which could potentially bypass the system completely, meaning any key change would have zero effect on the drive's ability to read and copy media.
Now, a processing key has been inadvertently leaked to the web (some say by AACS themselves), making all HD DVD discs wide-open for copying. Whether you're for or against Digital Rights Management (DRM) is inconsequential; the effects of piracy are felt by all. When AACS was first cracked, Universal (HD DVD) and Fox (Blu-ray) pulled their releases off the table and waited for a fix. That means less titles released, and no matter how you spin it, that is bad news for consumers.
Universal's reaction to this news is yet to be seen, but they surely can't be happy. Fox has taken a more proactive stance by speeding up the development of an anti-piracy technology they helped get added into the Blu-ray spec: BD Plus (BD+). The current rumors circulating are that Fox is waiting for testing to be completed for BD+ before releasing any titles using the new technology (which should be sometime in June).
The worst aspect of this entire situation has to be the actions taken by AACS themselves. The key was posted, and then numerous hacker sites posted the key to spread the word. While it was available, it was contained to that relatively small group of individuals. Then AACS started issuing cease and desist orders, and that is when mainstream media caught on. Now, the code is everywhere - even on t-shirts - and it has become impossible to stop the virus. How one organization can be so sloppy is beyond me, but one thing is sure: AACS has failed.