Industry analysts like to say that part of the reason Blu-ray won the high-def format war against HD DVD was because of Blu-ray promised Hollywood rock-solid copy protection against illegal pirating of movies.
Well, that was short-lived. This week Antigua-based software company Slysoft announced it was able to hack into Blu-ray's double-whammy protection scheme which included both a virtual machine tool called BD+ in addition to traditional digital rights management protections.
People who get Slysoft's AnyDVD HD software can now rip Blu-ray movies
to their own computer hard-drives and do with them as they please
(personal use only), including bypassing Blu-ray hardware completely
and watching movies via wireless streaming.
SlySoft hints that Hollywood put its faith in the wrong group: "Film
studios that have switched to Blu-ray may have crowed a little too
early," according to SlySoft's press release. Of course, many consumers
won't think SlySoft's software workaround is worth the trouble, but
even so the software will guarantee that at least a few illegal copies
of Blu-ray movies will make their way around the Interwebs. —Rachel
Rosmarin
