AACS DRM Cracked?
Engadget has a story, complete with a short video, on-line that claims the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) DRM technology incorporated into HD-DVD has been cracked. Before anyone in the HD-DVD camps starts boo-hooing, or anyone in the Blu-Ray camp starts cheering, I'd wager this actually helps boost the popularity of HD-DVDs over Blu-Ray.
Should this turn out to be true, would anyone really be surprised? And as consumers, why do we even let these big companies go to such extremes to limit how we're "allowed" to use the content we purchase anyway? It's incredibly easy to copy, transcode, and transport DVDs, and it has been that way for a couple of years now, and yet the movie industry had a banner year in '06. So, why do we as consumers have to deal with ever more intrusive and limiting DRM schemes? What are they actually protecting?
Did tape decks, CD recorders, or even Napster, or the MP3 kill the music industry? Did the VCR or DVD-R kill the movie industry? Will the industry crumble when we're able to easily copy HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs? Of course not.
OK. Rant over.
