Digital rights management has suffered another setback when Antigua-based software company SlySoft reportedly updated its AnyDVD HD software with a new AACS encryption code to enable the copying of ostensibly protected HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Earlier this month, the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, the organization that oversees the licensing of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray video players, sent Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices to Web sites demanding the removal of the online posts containing the compromised AACS code.
In mid-April, the AACSLA said that it had "expired" cracked AACS encryption keys, requiring consumers and manufacturers to update their video players with a new key though an online download. Discs to be reportedly released next week will be the first to blacklist compromised keys. But SlySoft appears to have a new key to the AACS digital lock. The AACSLA can also expire this key, but such a move will take weeks. In the meantime, the discs on the market will be copyable.