14 DAY TRIAL // Sooner or later. Because this is how things work in the encryption business. Take the DVD protection for example. It wasn't very complex so hackers managed to circumvent it really fast. And then Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs rushed in and with them came AACS. This one was pretty hard to crack but it too had a flaw related to the keys produced for a specific disk. As a result it was possible to decrypt all disks that contained a movie using a single set of keys.
BD Plus (BD+) is different. The system, from BD+ Technologies LLC, is now complete and will shortly be implemented by all Hollywood producers as a part of each BD disk. BD+ has a new and reworked control method composed of system specifications, key management rules, test specifications and various agreements. There's also a key issuing center, testing centers for players and testing facilities for disc playability.
Since the AACS system was broken, no new BD or HD-DVD movies were rolled out. BD+ will change all that due to its complexity. Each BD+ code will create an embedded virtual machine inside player hardware allowing for the introduction of some specific content protecting functions. A BD+ virtual layer could run diagnostics on the host environment to see if the disc player has been modified, or to verify the set of keys. Moreover if any ripping attempts are noticed the content will encrypt itself in order to prevent future attempts.
"BD+ will be the proverbial thorn in the side of Blu-ray movie rippers. With AACS and BD+ switching up encryption keys and methods routinely (BD+), it might become too much work to determine how to rip every Blu-ray Disc title out there," said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack.
BD+ is a system made for Blu-ray Disc, but not all implementations of the media are required to support the system. In fact, support for BD+ is less that for AACS. Of all categories of BD-ROM, only game consoles, movie players and BD PC software are required to work with BD+ encoded media.
Summing it up with the help of BD+ each Blu-ray Disc can have its own title-specific code, making the circumvention of the scheme much harder. It takes a whole lot of software knowledge to do that and BD+ creators think that might determine most hackers to give up. "Only time will tell and there is no guarantee that BD+ will be effective against the persistence and tenacity of the talented online community," commented Novack.
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