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Hacker Claims to of Decrypted new Copyright Technology

A hacker, calling himself Muslix64, claims to have decrypted the new DRM standard, Advanced Access Content System (AACS), a standard adopted by most Hollywood and music studios for the protection of copyrights of CDs, DVDs and high definition DVDs. Muslix64 posted the relevant information on the web, as well as, a video of the decryption on YouTube. This news is causing great discomfort in the entertainment industry that for years has been combating hackers and copyright infringers.

The new AACS standard is an improvement on the older DRM standard, Content Scramble System (CSS). The AACS, unlike its predecessor, allows licensers to respond to hackers decryption by revoking the hacked title keys. Carter Laren, senior security architect at Cryptography Research said: "The main difficulty that AACS will have in responding to this attack, however, will be determining which player(s) to revoke. Muslix64 has not actually released any player keys or detailed information about how the keys were obtained." Laren added that it is still early to assess this development, saying: "We shouldn`t be too quick to jump to that conclusion: the keys could just have easily come from a different HD DVD player, and the Cyberlink player may have just been a convenient way to demonstrate playback."

DVD manufacturers are in a never ending battle against hacker and copyright infringers. New encryption methods are being developed to counter the efforts to make copyrighted content free access. Many hackers do what they do out of ideology, while others just do it out of spite or as a test to ones skill or intelligence. Since any encrypted content must have a key to decrypt it, most likely, hackers will find it, but new technology such as that of the AACS, will allow licensers to fill in gaps in the security by disabling breached keys.