Consortium confirms high-def DVD protection has been bypassed

The consortium behind the high-def Advanced Access Content System (AACS) admitted its piracy-protection has been bypassed. This is the work of an anonymous hacker who calls himself muslix64. He first first bypassed HD DVD protection by the end of the year 2006 and last week he did the same with Blu-ray.

Muslix64 managed to decrypt media from Blu-ray and HD DVD discs and play it on his computer. He also released some tools and pirated versions of some high-definition movies are now circulating on some torrent websites. I guess they won't be really popular, as downloading these pirated 20GB files takes a lot longer than conventional 700MB or 1.4GB DVD rips.

The hacker muslix64 said the reason why he tried to bypass the copy protection was frustration. He says he was just an upset customer who bought a HD DVD movie and discovered he couldn't play it on his computer because his display didn't have the compliant connector demanded by the movie industry.

Muslix64 said not being able to play a movie that he paid for, because some Hollywood executive decided I cannot, made him mad.