Yep, a fix for a new version of BD+. And as they release this "fix", there will be another new version of BD+ immediately afterwards.
Granted, it seems like all copy protection schemes can be broken given enough brute force and or ingenuity, but for the movie industry to stay far enough ahead, they need to constantly and proactively changing their implementation or "version" of BD+.
I think that's exactly what they'll do. They'll start flipping the key and BD+ code not just per title but within individual batches. And combined with an increasing number of releases, AnyDVD will start suffering from large gaps in the number of supported titles.
DrXym: Do you realize how expensive that would be? And BD+ isn't a simple system to produce multiple versions of anyway. You can get away with changing AACS volume keys every 10,000 discs without making it prohibitively expensive, but making different BD+ apps (BD+ works by writing physical software that verifies that its running on an unbroken player) that do not rely upon the same well-known presumptions is astonishingly difficult, if not impossible.
Worse, hacking BD+ that way would undermine Blu-ray even further. It's bad enough to be told "I'm sorry, but 'Hi-def Wars III - Return of the MPEG' doesn't work on the Sony BD09192-2 rev. 3 unless you have firmware versions 1.1-1.3, or 2.2-2.7, though the current version is 2.9", but at least you can find out for certain if it'll play on your player or not. If the disc maker makes several different versions of the BD+ access-control for a single disc, then there's no way to predict what will work on your equipment and what will not.
And again, with all due deference to your corporate masters Engadget: When are you going to tell them, publicly, so they can't ignore it, that BD+ is the showstopper that'll destroy Blu-ray? When are you going to stop whoring yourselves to WB by not warning your readers, many of whom are too stupid to think past "Whoah! Any criticism of Blu-ray is an HD DVD/Toshiba/Microsoft/{Insert other unlikely protagonist here} plot. Blu-ray won. It must be perfect" that, in its current form, this technology can and will result in them being repeatedly ripped off.
The joke here is this article: Blu-ray will, unless BD+ is dropped, be killed by an anti-piracy system that punishes legitimate customers. Meanwhile, those legitimate customers can solve their problems by either buying a tool designed to circumvent the anti-piracy system, or they can *download the movie over the Internet from someone who already bought the tool*.
Why is this happening? Why is Hollywood that stupid? And will Engadget not take a stand on it when the ultimate result will be just as damaging to WB as it will be to their (less informed, more fanboi-ish) readers?
squiggleslash, now you're being silly. Why is BD+ so much more expensive? BD+ is just a runtime that executes the code it is given. Code can be randomly generated you know. It would be very straightforward to (for example) create multiple BD+ apps that performs a simple mathematical calculation based off a few random bytes of some firmware version. Each batch could use different bytes and perhaps a random computation.
If there was a different BD+ scheme per batch, then SlySoft would be required to purchase discs from EVERY SINGLE BATCH to guarantee that the disc will play. And how do they collect a disc from every batch unless there is something on the label which tells them which batch? And if the computations require a genuine firmware, at what point does SlySoft expose itself to copyright infringement if it needs firmware to produce the answer?
It is quite obvious that BD+ will get more sophisticated and adopt these tactics. There is of course a QA overhead to doing this since players can't just stop working but if the cost of QA less than the loss in sales, it's something studios will do sooner or later, or farm out to certification labs.
BD+ was never claimed to be uncrackable. What it is though, and what SlySoft will ultimately discover is an increasingly expensive system to break. As the number of releases increases, and BD+ usage increases, and BD+ sophistication increases, major holes will appear in AnyDVD's support. They simply won't be able to keep up. At first it might mean waiting a week or two for a crack. Later it might mean waiting months or not getting a title at all. This is the whole point of BD+ - make it expensive and infeasible to crack every disc.
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Yep, a fix for a new version of BD+. And as they release this "fix", there will be another new version of BD+ immediately afterwards.
Granted, it seems like all copy protection schemes can be broken given enough brute force and or ingenuity, but for the movie industry to stay far enough ahead, they need to constantly and proactively changing their implementation or "version" of BD+.
I think that's exactly what they'll do. They'll start flipping the key and BD+ code not just per title but within individual batches. And combined with an increasing number of releases, AnyDVD will start suffering from large gaps in the number of supported titles.
DrXym: Do you realize how expensive that would be? And BD+ isn't a simple system to produce multiple versions of anyway. You can get away with changing AACS volume keys every 10,000 discs without making it prohibitively expensive, but making different BD+ apps (BD+ works by writing physical software that verifies that its running on an unbroken player) that do not rely upon the same well-known presumptions is astonishingly difficult, if not impossible.
Worse, hacking BD+ that way would undermine Blu-ray even further. It's bad enough to be told "I'm sorry, but 'Hi-def Wars III - Return of the MPEG' doesn't work on the Sony BD09192-2 rev. 3 unless you have firmware versions 1.1-1.3, or 2.2-2.7, though the current version is 2.9", but at least you can find out for certain if it'll play on your player or not. If the disc maker makes several different versions of the BD+ access-control for a single disc, then there's no way to predict what will work on your equipment and what will not.
And again, with all due deference to your corporate masters Engadget: When are you going to tell them, publicly, so they can't ignore it, that BD+ is the showstopper that'll destroy Blu-ray? When are you going to stop whoring yourselves to WB by not warning your readers, many of whom are too stupid to think past "Whoah! Any criticism of Blu-ray is an HD DVD/Toshiba/Microsoft/{Insert other unlikely protagonist here} plot. Blu-ray won. It must be perfect" that, in its current form, this technology can and will result in them being repeatedly ripped off.
The joke here is this article: Blu-ray will, unless BD+ is dropped, be killed by an anti-piracy system that punishes legitimate customers. Meanwhile, those legitimate customers can solve their problems by either buying a tool designed to circumvent the anti-piracy system, or they can *download the movie over the Internet from someone who already bought the tool*.
Why is this happening? Why is Hollywood that stupid? And will Engadget not take a stand on it when the ultimate result will be just as damaging to WB as it will be to their (less informed, more fanboi-ish) readers?
squiggleslash, now you're being silly. Why is BD+ so much more expensive? BD+ is just a runtime that executes the code it is given. Code can be randomly generated you know. It would be very straightforward to (for example) create multiple BD+ apps that performs a simple mathematical calculation based off a few random bytes of some firmware version. Each batch could use different bytes and perhaps a random computation.
If there was a different BD+ scheme per batch, then SlySoft would be required to purchase discs from EVERY SINGLE BATCH to guarantee that the disc will play. And how do they collect a disc from every batch unless there is something on the label which tells them which batch? And if the computations require a genuine firmware, at what point does SlySoft expose itself to copyright infringement if it needs firmware to produce the answer?
It is quite obvious that BD+ will get more sophisticated and adopt these tactics. There is of course a QA overhead to doing this since players can't just stop working but if the cost of QA less than the loss in sales, it's something studios will do sooner or later, or farm out to certification labs.
BD+ was never claimed to be uncrackable. What it is though, and what SlySoft will ultimately discover is an increasingly expensive system to break. As the number of releases increases, and BD+ usage increases, and BD+ sophistication increases, major holes will appear in AnyDVD's support. They simply won't be able to keep up. At first it might mean waiting a week or two for a crack. Later it might mean waiting months or not getting a title at all. This is the whole point of BD+ - make it expensive and infeasible to crack every disc.
It will happen, mark my words.