“A computer hacker claims to have broken the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) encryption specification used to control unauthorised copying on HD DVD and Blu-ray video players,” Robert McMillan reports for Macworld UK.
“The hacker, who goes by the name of Muslix64, said he wrote the software earlier this month after hardware compatibility problems made it impossible for him to play HD DVDs on an Xbox that was connected to his PC,” McMillan reports.
MacDailyNews Take: What a trifecta! Muslix64’s got the lesser of the next-gen DVD players in the lesser of the video game consoles connected to the lesser personal computer platform. No wonder Muslix64’s a hacker; he has to be in order to get anything to work. Now, if this wakes up content providers and causes them to ease up on the idiotically-restrictive DRM, more power to Muslix64! The music, movie, TV, and other entertainment industries should stop treating law-abiding customers as potential thieves and instead – gasp – treat them as good customers.
McMillan continues, “Muslix64 has posted a video purporting to show the software decrypting a copy of Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket. This development is a black eye for the new optical disc formats, which are both jockeying to be successor to the DVD. The Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, the group that sets the AACS specification, could not be reached for comment.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced on March 10, 2005 that Apple was “pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD.”
According to The Blu-ray Disc Association’s website, HD DVD’s pre-recorded capacities are 15 GB for a single layer disc, or 30 GB for a double layer disc. Blu-ray Disc provides 67% more capacity per layer at 25 GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disc. It’s par for the course that Apple backs the superior format while Microsoft supports the inferior one.
It does, however, bear noting that Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode. According to a press release from April 17, 2005, “Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Apple is an active member of the DVD Forum which developed the HD DVD standard, and last month joined the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association.”
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