The AACS Licensing Authority is most renowned as the group behind the DRM found in Blu-ray discs—the same DRM, mind you, that’s already been cracked. And they’re out to kill analogue.
The latest version of the people’s Blu-ray ripper, Blu-ray Disc Ripper 1.4, is the first to support BD-Live titles. BD Ripper 1.4 now grabs the AACS folder, which might be needed for BD-Live flicks to decrypt downloaded content. That means it in effect copies the BD-Live extended content, bringing us one step closer to running downloadable BD-Live goodies on a ripped disc. You still need an AACS key to make the magic happen, but those are easy enough to find. What was that about 10 years, blah blah Blu-ray blah blah unbeatable blah blah? [TG Daily]
Ars Technica has a lengthy piece that re-sounds the battle cry against AACS, the copy protection scheme for Blu-Ray and HD DVD—specifically, the gimpage it’s bringing to both PCs and Macs in order to sate Hollywood’s fears of casual piracy.
The video path basically has to be locked down at every point, and both Microsoft and Apple’s OSes are required to employ “techniques of obfuscation clearly designed to effectively disguise and hamper attempts to discover the approaches used” so it’s harder to hack, among other great “features.”
