Next week, as a result of the first countermeasure by the content and software industries to combat intensive efforts by hackers to break copy-protection technology, new HD-DVD movies that won’t play on some players will hit the shelves.

A few months ago, hackers first poked a hole in AACS and have since been able to decrypt HD-DVD movies and, theoretically, upload them to file-sharing networks.  The development ironically involved the use of an HD-DVD add-on drive for the Microsoft’s Xbox 360.  Ironically, Microsoft is one of the backers of the AACS system.

The new method uses the Xbox’s HD-DVD drive to read the volume ID for a disc, one piece of information needed to eventually decrypt and copy a disc, but that security gap will be closed for some time with the new discs.  Earlier this month, however, hackers scored another success in compromising AACS technology, an effort cryptography experts say foreshadows a difficult road ahead in keeping pirates at bay.

Through sophisticated software probes, hackers found the device key in InterVideoDVD, a software program now owned by Corel. On April 6, Corel issued an update for the InterVideo WinDVD playback software that refreshes and further obscures those device keys. New HD DVDs issued after April 23 will not work on players running the old software.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Microsoft, Xbox 360, News, High-Def DVD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.