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SlySoft's AnyDVD cracks BD+...again

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

March 20, 2008, 6:15 PM

SlySoft, a software company located in Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda and maker of the AnyDVD ripping utility have announced a software upgrade that defeats the BD+ protection used on some Blu-ray discs.

BD+ is a DRM solution for Blu-ray that was initially developed by Cryptography Research Inc. In November, Macrovision struck a $45 million deal with CRI for the BD+ code and associated patents.

Weeks before the deal, SlySoft claimed it had broken the BD+ protection. This was technically untrue, though certain conditions did allow for the playback of copied content.

Yesterday, SlySoft announced again that it had defeated BD+, claiming its AnyDVD HD 6.4.0.0 has the option to remove BD+ allowing "increased compatibility with titles released by Twentieth Century Fox."

The reference to Fox is no doubt addressing the movie house's reported proclamation in January that BD+ had never been compromised.

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By kholdstare

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 2:22 PM

was it only HD DVD layers that had an ethernet port or do blu-ray players do too?. if they start with that it will be harder to crack BD disks

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 23, 2008 - 11:09 AM

Many profile 1 players were sold without Ethernet ports.

Score: 0

By c4p0ne

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 8:42 AM

You know what fellas? The proof is in the pudding. All I f*cking know is that I download BD/BD+ Rips @ 1080p all the time (including sh*t by fox). ALL disc protections are crap and companies should wake up and realize that they may as well keep that 45mil because they're gonna lose it ANYWAY in addition to lost profits from so-called "piracy".

Bottom line: it MUST be true that BD protection is broken because these BDRips aren't just coming from out of thin air, regardless if Slysoft is or isn't the ones that broke it, it simply is broken (and useless incidentally).

Score: 0

By marrix

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 7:22 AM

Been using Anydvd since v3, I reside in region 4 which means anything I purchase from Amazon (US) has to be backed up. 'Though my SD DVD player is region free the only drive I have that isn't is the one I use for my Mac Airbook, being the Super Multidrive.
Consider the purchase of this app second to only NOD32.

Score: 0

By mdotwills

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 9:16 PM

yay... I HATE all this protection rubbish, and I am referring to protection schemes right across the board. Spend money where it matters:

Instead of wasting money creating complex protection schemes (which are broken anyway), rather pass the savings onto the consumer and sell the material at a lower cost. Legit + happy customers.

Why you ask is this not going to happen? Because power and greed have driven these studios to corruption. Nobody wins.

Score: 0

By Registered

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 9:09 PM

i think you people are jumping the gun a little to quick,

unfortunately for us, BD+ had not reached it's full potential yet, looking at some technicle info, there still is room for BD+ to be improved quite a lot,

the cat and mouse game is not over just yet,

i still think the answer lays in open source,

agreed Slysoft is without a doubt the daddy when it comes to cracking dvd type protection, but slysoft is only one body, i hope open source projects also find ways of cracking these awful restricting protections as open source is a lot bigger community, would be a terrible disaster if RIAA or who ever did get Slysoft in the court rooms

Score: 0

By De Julien

edited Mar 20, 2008 - 9:00 PM

I think this is especially great news for Sony. Perhaps now people will think about buying this overpriced crap.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony come with a new "standard" once enough people took the plunge to buy one such player though.

Score: 0

By DigitAl56K

edited Mar 20, 2008 - 7:37 PM

AnyDVD is a wonderful product, but it's a shame that it has to exist in the first place.

I use it to to play my region 2 DVDs in my region 1 DVD drive, and to "correct" copy-protection measures added by the studios on certain titles that can actually make them play back incorrectly (or not at all) on software DVD players.

Many people believe that tools like AnyDVD are used only for piracy, but as a long standing user I need it simply to play DVDs that I've legitimately purchased, and that's really a sorry state of affairs.

It is no wonder that piracy is such a problem though, when you're essentially paying $20-$30 for a disc that the studios feel they have a right to dictate how you play. Much like software that is expensive and requires online activation, those who pirate get it for free and "it just works" because the artificial rights restrictions have already been removed.

Three cheers for Slysoft!

Score: 0

By MMPD

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 12:20 AM

agreed, AnyDVD is a very nice product. I use it as well for the DVD's I own. I am very much against piracy.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 7:39 PM

If its any consolation to sony, it also is available widely on torrent sites, but then this might not be what they want either.

sucks huh :P

Score: 0

By ToeKneeC

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 6:50 PM

Once again - if they price the media right people pay. Get them down again to 15-19 dollars like the "old" DVDs and people buy them. Or do what more and more people are doing, NetFlex or BlockBuster Online. I only want to use this to move my collection to my Media Center. Sadly there is a lot of people that don't care about quality (the bootleg movies that people record with a camcorder). They will just do the same with HD Movies and reburn. Again - get the buiness model right, and the consumer does buy.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 23, 2008 - 11:08 AM

Get them down again to 15-19 dollars like the "old" DVDs and people buy them.

...and they'll still be posted and downloaded by the thousands. You think Movie piracy began with Blu Ray/HD DVD??

"People" will get for free anything and everything they can so long as the effort and time spent on it costs them less.

Score: 0

By auiotour

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 12:44 AM

Agreed, any DVD I wanted before i bought my BD player I bought on the day it released. I used to netflix and burn um and convert to divx but with them being so cheap lately most at target are 6.50, 10.00 or 15.99 I been picking up handfuls of dvd's each time i go in. Any new movie i watch for on BD and buy online for 23-24 instead of every where else where its 30-40 a disc in most cases.

Score: 0

By Banquo

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 6:40 PM

All the studios that flocked to Blu-Ray over the much more affordable HD DVD because they thought BD+ would protect their precious content can DIAF. Would enjoy seeing the look on their faces though when they find out all the money they spent on their DRM crap was for nothing.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 11:37 PM

The studios went with the immediate money rather than the choice that would give them more money in the long run, IMO.

The more I hear about Blu-Ray, the more I hate it.

Score: 0

By Stormprobe

posted Mar 21, 2008 - 6:58 PM

It will not be for nothing. BD+ will continue to screw the consumer, although, not just as it was meant to.

Score: 0

By gregmlr

edited Mar 20, 2008 - 9:27 PM

The "superior" DRM of BRD was just a ploy to cover up the hundreds
of millions of dollars Sony paid to the studios to choose their format.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Mar 20, 2008 - 7:36 PM

Its a reason they claim they chose over HD-DVD. Sure must be good to know that the extra expense they suffer to make these disks is well spent. With the cost of films at a premium, im sure the computer savy early adopters wont think twice to rent & rip. Im sure these will duly be converted to DivX and on many more torrent sites sometime too.

Score: 0

By thugbot

edited Mar 20, 2008 - 6:52 PM

Agreed, people really should have done there research about even jumping on board with BLU-RAY. It’s dated technology to begin with.

Score: 0

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