SlySoft, the Antigua-based company behind AndDVD HD, has claimed that it knows how to defeat the additional BD+ encryption available on Blu-ray devices, and that BD+ movies will be cracked by the end of the year. In a press release, the company appears to relish its outlaw status in Hollywood. "I should really think about hiring a bodyguard now, since this product won"t please everybody," said James Wong, the company"s head developer. He"s certainly right about that.
AACS, the "advanced" copy protection system deployed on both high-def disc formats, proved itself to be something less than hacker proof when it was cracked in a couple of months. Back in April, hackers announced a set of "non-revocable cracks" and then promptly cracked AACS again a day after it was "fixed." BD+ is a second layer of encryption that can be slapped on top of AACS. It wasn"t used with initial Blu-ray releases because, well, it wasn"t actually done. The specs and licensing arrangements weren"t worked out until June of this year, and it wasn"t long after that BD+ went to work annoying legal users.