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The closure of SlySoft is having a chilling effect on another commercial provider of copy protection circumvention software:
The company behind the popular DVDFab software has announced it will not be supporting decryption of the enhanced Advanced Access Content System (AACS) that will be used to protect new Ultra HD (4K UHD) Blu-ray discs. The announcement comes just a day after rival copying software company SlySoft confirmed its closure.
[...] Under pressure from AACS LA, a decryption licensing outfit founded by a group of powerful Hollywood movie studios and various technology partners, SlySoft first went dark and then announced its closure this week. And now, in the space of just a couple of days, another DVD/Blu-ray copying software company also appears to be feeling the heat.
[Continues.]
Like SlySoft, China-based Fengtao Software has also been involved in a dispute with AACS LA and in 2014 was the subject of a preliminary injunction after a court found that DVDFab violates the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. In 2015 a federal court in New York extended the injunction, further pressuring the company. Then yesterday, just a day after the closure of SlySoft, Fengtao dropped a bombshell of its own. In a press release sent to Myce the company announced that DVDFab will not be updated to crack the Advanced Access Content System encryption that will be present in the next generation of 4K UHD Blu-ray discs.
"The next version of AACS Copy Protection accompanying those newly released Ultra HD Blu-ray titles is the version 2.0 of Advanced Access Content System. According to a document called AACS 2.0 Draft, the new copy protection requires the Ultra HD Blu-ray players to support two AACS 2.0 functionalities, one named 'basic' and the other referred as 'enhanced'," the company said in a statement. "Fengtao Software Inc. makes it clear that the company will not decrypt or circumvent AACS 2.0 in the days to come. This is in accordance with AACS-LA, (which has not made public the specifications for AACS 2.0), the BDA and the movie studios."
Noting that the debate over copying commercial movie discs for home use has "raged on for decades", Fengtao says that the practice of decrypting copy protection technology has done so too and is not likely to stop in the foreseeable future. Even the fact that AACS 2.0 requires an Internet connection for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs to be played back for the first time is unlikely to stop the problem. "Now here comes the question: will there be a solution to crack AACS 2.0? Likely, there will be, publicly or secretly," the company says. Nevertheless, Fengtao insists that it won't be behind the effort.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday February 28 2016, @10:41PM
I just found out that the first 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays are out on Tuesday, so I will do a story on that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Ultra_HD_Blu-ray [wikipedia.org]
I want optical discs to be successful since they could potentially be useful for personal storage, or crackable for a source of 4K content. However, the capacity has only jumped from 50 GB to a maximum of 100 GB (since H.265 will be used to encode the content), so it doesn't look good for making optical disc storage competitive with hard disks. Archival Disc [wikipedia.org] will store 300 GB to 1 TB, but they will be priced for businesses, not home users (like BDXL).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Celestial on Sunday February 28 2016, @11:04PM
March 1 was the scheduled release date for the first batch of 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray releases, but they began shipping to consumers last week. I received my 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray of The Martian last week. It was the only film in the initial release batch I saw worth purchasing. Although supposedly the 2009 Star Trek and 2013 Star Trek Into Darkness are scheduled for release sometime in June, so those will most likely be my next purchases.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @12:01AM
good. i can't wait to look into the eyes of Bender Cumbersnatch in ST:ID
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @03:01PM
gotta see all those lens flares in maximum resolution
bit ironic.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday February 29 2016, @10:47AM
sudo mod me up