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Neo and friends already freed from high-def DRM
AnyDVD HD software stillborns latest AACS high-def protections one week before launch

Efforts that began in December 2006, and continued through February 2007, lead the way for the circumvention of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc copy-protection scheme.

It started with the discovery of individual encryption keys for specific movies titles that would allow the decryption and backup of the protected media. Continued efforts eventually uncovered the Processing Key, essentially a silver bullet that is able to defeat the copy protection of all HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc media currently on the market.

Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administration (AACS LA) acknowledged the effectiveness of the hack, but promised that it would soon patch up the hole in future releases. “AACS LA has confirmed that AACS Title Keys have appeared on public web sites without authorization,” read a statement from the AACS website. “AACS LA employs both technical and legal measures to deal with attacks such as this one, and AACS LA is using all appropriate remedies at its disposal to address the attack.“

Beginning May 22, which is most notably the release date of the Matrix trilogy on HD DVD, all high-definition titles will ship with Media Key Block (MKB) v3 – a new encryption key version that would render the previously discovered Processing Key obsolete.

“If a set of device keys is compromised in a way that threatens the integrity of the system, an updated MKB can be provided by the AACS LA that will cause a product with the compromised set of device keys to calculate a different key than is computed by the remaining compliant products,” as found written in AACS documentation. “In this way, the compromised device keys are 'revoked' by the new MKB.”

However, it appears that the AACS’ updated copy protection measures have already been circumvented even before the new software’s official release. SlySoft, developers of a software used to defeat the copy protections of DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, have revealed that its latest version of AnyDVD HD is able to sidestep the new MKB from the AACS.

According to posts in SlySoft's forums, the new AnyDVD HD version was successfully able to decrypt an early-shipped release of the Matrix trilogy. Judging from how the protection system works, the newly discovered exploit will also work with all upcoming software until the AACS LA implements yet another patch.

The original Processing Key, found in February, recently caused quite the stir. Attempts to censor a string of letters and numbers stirred Internet users to overwhelm Digg.com in the first well-documented Internet Riot, leading it and other websites to change their legal position on censorship.

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I'm just saying
By leidegre on 5/18/2007 5:19:25 AM , Rating: 5
Why bother? Copy-protection, and copyrights, it's beyond me. For every method there is always a fix amount of time for which a method for circumventing can be created.

The bottom line is that instead of trying to prevent piracy, they should find a way to go with it. I read a while back, that there's a websites were you can pay for stuff you have downloaded and so, protect your self from prosecution.

I strongly believe in the ways piracy have opened. But I do not endorse copyright infringements. This is however reverse psychology, you tell them not to, and they pursue it even more rigoursly.

The single one most fact preventing copying of DVD9/HD/Blue-ray is there size alone.




RE: I'm just saying
By Vonagio on 5/18/2007 5:49:37 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The single one most fact preventing copying of DVD9/HD/Blue-ray is their size alone.


Cost per GB is getting lower all the time and internet connection speeds are increasing (well not so much in the UK as elsewhere). For me anyway, hard drive space and connection speed are not a problem with regards to the increased size of the space used by films.


RE: I'm just saying
By leidegre on 5/18/2007 6:26:01 AM , Rating: 2
HDTV ~45 min TV ~= 350MB
HRTV ~45 min TV ~= 700MB
720P ~45 min TV ~= 1GB
HDTV DVDRIP Movie ~= 700MB-1400MB
720P DVD9/Blue-ray Movie ~= 8GB

See where I'm going? The data has gotten a lot bigger...

I enojoy the benefit of a 100Mbit connection but those are rather rare and it takes a lot of time to download that amount of data. I do believe with the current development that the quality and size will continue to grow faster than available internet speed and disk space. And that will undoubtly cause problems if you intend to store this amount data. (not taking into consideration the time it would take to encode the amount of data of any such HD media)


RE: I'm just saying
By dluther on 5/18/2007 6:54:58 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I enojoy the benefit of a 100Mbit connection...


It's pretty clear that you have equated the size of the ripped file with the bandwidth required to transfer it. Hmmm.

For someone who claims to eschew piracy, your conclusions seem to point to a different direction.

I'm just saying...


RE: I'm just saying
By MonkeyPaw on 5/18/2007 10:47:00 AM , Rating: 2
I think that these large file downloads are what is going to help catch pirates the most. ISPs are really going to notice if you have several multi-GB downloads in a week. From what I gather, ISPs can and do send warnings to users who are suspected of downloading illegal content. I think the first red flag for the ISP is high-bandwidth consumtion. Downloading full-length HD-quality video will most certainly set off alarms.


RE: I'm just saying
By gramboh on 5/18/2007 11:41:05 AM , Rating: 3
Except that ISPs don't care about piracy. They want you to use your connection a lot because it brings about the chance for extra billing or selling you an upgraded speed package. They also don't want to assume any liability for monitoring what content you are transferring or else they will be sued by content providers.


RE: I'm just saying
By Schrag4 on 5/18/2007 2:16:33 PM , Rating: 2
My ISP cares. They sent a warning to someone I know.


RE: I'm just saying
By alifbaa on 5/18/2007 6:14:41 PM , Rating: 2
They sent a warning to a friend of mine based on an email from a company working for a copyright holder. They verified it themselves, and then shut down his service without warning. He called, and was forwarded to their central office. They gave him a talk about how downloading was illegal, made him delete say he deleted his files, and then said "if you get caught doing this 3 more times in the next 6 months, we'll consider banning you for 6 months."

Overall, it seemed to him that they didn't care beyond giving the appearance of caring to the Hollywood types.


RE: I'm just saying
By feelingshorter on 5/18/2007 10:25:45 PM , Rating: 2
The opposite must be true. The average person who browses the internet for news/email/youtube doesnt use as much bandwidth as a person who pirates movies. So they definitely care because it is taxing their system heavily. The 80/20 rule is quite true. The top 20% internet users use 80% of the bandwidth. You can watch as many youtube videos as you want all day, it still wont equal the gigs upon gigs you just downloaded for a movie or whatever. You cannot watch movies while your asleep, but you can surely leave your computer to download all night. ISPs care, but companies who make a living off the bandwidth such as Cisco (who don't support net neutrality either, for obvious $ reasons) doesn't.


RE: I'm just saying
By PsYStuMmY on 5/20/2007 5:27:56 PM , Rating: 2
i had about 7 friends that had their service disconnected by cox cable because of what they dl'ed. their service was cut, and they called to inquire about the lack of service. they said if they got caught a few more times their service would be cut off indefinetly. i know at&t yahoo dsl doesn't care about what their users dl'ed because i have another friend that dl's stuff for my seven other friend's lol.


RE: I'm just saying
By Murst on 5/18/2007 5:02:56 PM , Rating: 2
Hmm... I doubt ISPs would have much control over that. Just because you are transfering a large amount of data that doesn't mean you are breaking the law.

I would be *very* upset if I got a call from my ISP because of my high bandwidth usage. Downloads from MSDN are often multi-GBs. If my ISP would, for example, disconnect my service because they [i]thought[/i] I was illegally obtaining copyrighted material due to my high bandwidth usage, there'd be hell to pay. Not to mention I think something like that would probably violate some kind of law here in Ohio.

The bad PR they would get from one wrong case would make it not worth all the trouble anyways. There is a huge amount of competition in the DSL/cable business. None of them would want to risk losing customers like that.


RE: I'm just saying
By Christopher1 on 5/22/2007 2:53:17 AM , Rating: 2
Uh..... there are other things that are multi-gigabyte downloads. Legal games that are released as trial versions (one I recently downloaded was 5, count them, 5 GB's!), legal movies made by home movie buffs, etc.

The first red flag for the ISP is NOT high bandwidth consumption. I use about 500 GB PER MONTH on my Comcast Internet Account (I took the time to see how much I used about 3 months ago) and there haven't been any 'red flags' raised.

Studio's, both gaming and movie, are just going to have to realize that people are NOT going to stand for their inflated price BS anymore, and if they are not going to give them their products at a reasonable price, people are going to get them some other way.

To the people who I KNOW are going to say "You can just do without if you cannot afford it!"...... go shoot yourselves! People should NOT have to do without entertainment just because the movie and game companies are greedy SOB's and before you bring up "Entertainment is not that important!"..... yes, it is! Movie, video games, and the children I play them with are the ONLY things that have kept me reasonably sane over the past 15 years, since I hit puberty.


RE: I'm just saying
By Adsski on 5/18/2007 5:53:58 AM , Rating: 2
I have to agreed the size of a movie on HD DVD / Blu-Ray is enough of a deterrant to prevent copying, without all this DRM AACS nonsense.

For me here in the UK the current state of play is this, blank recording media for HD-DVD & Blu-ray is currently in the £13-15 pounds range, the retail movie is about £2 more. Allied to this i'll have to buy an HD format burner for my PC which currently retail for about £425. Thats a lot of burning needed to recoup initial outlay!

Now some may say, defeat the encryption and convert/downmix to DVD format and burn to DVD9 using cheap blanks etc. But i can't see the point in that, i mean I want the full HD experience!

I don't think the studios should be worried, yes it may be possible to copy these films now, but for the average user it's going to take a long while before the enabeling technology becomes cheap enough for it to be tempting.


RE: I'm just saying
By loeakaodas on 5/18/2007 10:25:17 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Now some may say, defeat the encryption and convert/downmix to DVD format and burn to DVD9 using cheap blanks etc. But i can't see the point in that, i mean I want the full HD experience!

Most HD movie rips are in the DVD5~DVD9 size encoded in x264 and with a decent connection you can get a movie in a few hours.


RE: I'm just saying
By Mitch101 on 5/18/2007 11:40:18 AM , Rating: 2
Hard Drive space is about 20 cents a gig now.
15-50 gig movie = $3.00 - $10.00 of hard disc space.

I dont know what size the movies are on the disc's but I would guess they are maybe 20-30 gig on average making them $4.00-$6.00 of disc space in thier native format.

While there is currently no DVD media to burn back to in native format in its entirety there will be eventually.

Since there are a lot of HDTV's out there which cant do 1080P and movie players that can only do 1080I I would suspect they could covert 1080P to 1080I and save a lot of space but Im not sure if it would fit onto a DVD-9 at that point.


RE: I'm just saying
By Christopher1 on 5/22/2007 2:55:30 AM , Rating: 2
It's less than that if you go to someplace like Newegg. I am thinking of buying an external hard drive for my movies (legally downloaded or not available for purchase in the United States).

I priced a 500GB external drive for a little over 150 dollars. I was SHOCKED at the price, and it wasn't at a no-name seller either.


RE: I'm just saying
By borowki on 5/18/2007 6:14:52 AM , Rating: 2
It's worthwhile for the entertainment industry to demonstrate that there isn't a technical solution to piracy. They could use that to argue for some favorable legislations in Congress. We'll likely see in the near some kind of piracy tax levied on our internet connection. When happens, you can thank these freedom-loving hackers.


RE: I'm just saying
By leidegre on 5/18/2007 6:30:47 AM , Rating: 2
What about an impractical one? For all we know, if we end up with HD++ quality content, which doesn't lend itself for copying, let alone encoding. We end up with something like an asymmetric encryption, the way RSA does it. Time makes all the differance. If it's not worth it, why bother?


RE: I'm just saying
By alifbaa on 5/18/2007 9:06:48 AM , Rating: 2
That won't really work. The fact is, so long as it's something people want, they will spend the time to get it. In fact, the better quality you make something, the more people will want it.

The hacking groups have parallel processing set-ups to process their files -- effectively a supercomputer in their home. They also have money and time in excess. Processing power is not an obstacle to them.

Even at 25GB, a downloader in the US with a decent internet connection and a Bittorrent client can download a full movie in 4 or 5 days. That's not enough time to stop most people who are capable of decoding/viewing 1080p. Plus, with decent recoding to a more compressed format, you can get that 25GB down to 1/3 of the size with only a very negligible difference in quality.


RE: I'm just saying