Can't say that I feel sorry for the slobs in the movie industry that put out movies in the current media but state how you can watch it or where you can watch it.

I am a lot more willing to support them if they weren't regularly bending me over the bed post.

Paris cause, well com'on we have all seen the videos. She is quite familiar with the bed post.

Just had to say it. I can't believe they weren't mentioned in the article.

Oh, yes: "The panel agreed with Antigua that it had no effective trade sanctions against the United States other than to suspend its WTO obligations to the United States in respect of copyrights, trademarks and other forms of intellectual property." (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/21/antigua_us/)

This is just _so_ ironic. Go Antigua! Stick it to da big man!

was "Pirates of The Caribbean", naturally.

Why is breaking stupid DRM news?

If you have a player and some media, the DRM is already broken, otherwise you would not be able to play the movie. Actually getting the raw DRM free data is just a matter of patient investigation.

I tested it with Sunshine last night.

I don't really want to copy 50 GB of stuff onto my hard drive but that's not all it's good for...

PowerDVD + Sunshine needs less CPU to play, I had to overclock to play it before.

You can use a non-HDCP monitor.

No region code crap.

BD+ = Do Not Want.

Another interesting and amusing thing worth noting is that because of the USA's disgraceful behaviour with regards to online gambling, which is just one example of its typically characteristic selfish and pig-headed attitude towards the rest of the world, the island of Antigua has been granted immunity from prosecution through the WTO if it chooses to ignore any USA copyrights. So, even if Hollywood has a tantrum and demands that SlySoft stops producing this software, there will be absolutely no moral or legal imperative for them to do so!

What would be even more amusing is if it transpires that any counterfeited goods such as DVD movies and music CDs can be sold at bargain prices to other countries with the blessing of the WTO in order to punish what Americans like to refer to as "God's Country" for its despicable hypocracy.

The USA ecomony is already going down the pan, not least because of Corporate American greed. What goes around comes around.

This could be interesting to watch. All I need now is some popcorn.

How much more money a BD player (and disk) cost because of illegal DRM that have once more been proven 100% useless?

but now since the illegal DRM cam be removed from infected BD disk, it is time to start thinking about buying one...

They said the same about DVD. They Failed.

So they're saying it about DVD Mk2, and they failed.

Surprise!

The trend is so obviously going towards no copy protection; I certainly wouldn't buy a BluRay disk unless I was confidant that I could use MY media how I want. I BOUGHT THE DAMN THING, I DECIDE WHAT I DO WITH IT!

Isn't this the same country that is in dispute with the USA via the WTO and is allowed to suspend it's copyright law regarding products originating in the USA?

Oh yes, it is.

Maybe this software will push the entertainment industry into forcing the USA government to settle and either pay out big time or allow competition in the gambling industry.

This is just the leverage Antigua needs.

... which doesn't seem the wisest investment, now. Couldn't have happened to a nicer company :)

I rarely backup my Blockbuster rentals these days, but I keep AnyDVD running for another reason.

It also prevents the spyware on commercial CDs from being installed. So for example when Sony released their latest rootkit, I was unaffected. I didn't of course know that until after the furor, but after finding out I decided it was an effective piece of anti-malware software and would remain on my PC for good.

1st, the average Crypto Jon knows there is no point in encrypting things if a "hacker to be" lays their hands on both the ciphered & the clear version of a stream.

So why bother BD+ v1.0 or v1.1.z wont make any difference, once the applet loading mechanism is understood there is very little you can do.

The only way is for the Majors to release their movies in an encrypted format that only them are able to decipher and with no mention made of the contents on the sleeve.

Can I have my HD DVD back now? Please.

When will companies that create copy protection systems realise that if you create protection using technology, technology can remove it.

No matter how much $millions you throw at developing the protection, some 12 year old will crack it (I know, slight exageration).

...you can break it.

And so begins the cat and mouse game. However by being unable to crack newer titles by a couple of months or more the studios do have a release window to take advantage of sales to those who cannot wait that long.

*snicker*

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Slysoft has only one system to target and more resources can be applied. So the next upgrade to the Copy protection should be cracked even quicker. Which is nice.

Is there some antiguan onine shop that already sells DVD's without DRM and region lock ?

This would be the thing that gets me to buy movies again instead of downloading.

Living in an Asian country I have to option

- to buy DVD's when they come out in US or Europe but unable to play it on regional DVD players

- wait for the local release if they evers show up and try to navigate with asian menu's (this is also fun when you have movies / series like heroes where someone speaks a local language like Japanese or chinese but if you watch it in the English soundtrack you don't get English subtitles for the Japanese / Chinese spoken parts)

- download a rip that does not pose any problem to be watched.

I love it that the movie industry keeps applying the principle of Have gun will shoot own foot

Or, option 3 for DVD (which is off topic incidently, the article's about BD):

http://www.dvdchips.co.uk/

Look up regional player, order remote, zap player with remote, your regional player will now play disks from any region.

I have no connection with these guys apart from being a satisfied customer.

Stuff wasting resources being dictatorial and controlling. I'm happy that there are bright people out there shooting down DRM tech. I don't want to be told I MUST spend hundreds of pounds extra just to watch HD movies purely because the industry have dictated you *must* use HDCP. My rather decent monitor doesn't have it.

I should be able to buy HD movies and simply play them. On any damn screen I choose. Not only that, I should be able to buy movies from anywhere in the world, and play them. No restrictions.

It's their need to control and manipulate the market that sets my teeth on edge and presumably many others too.

I don't believe in free movies as in downloading them-I prefer to go pay at a cinema. I just believe I should also buy without restrictions and bullshit.

Well done Pirates of the Caribean :)

The day after HD-DVD "died", I actually mentioned to someone that within a month or so someone would be out there with a simple to use tool for decrypting the BluRay discs.

Now, once I know I can play stuff from Linux without too much effort, I may consider buying a drive and move onto HD movies.

BTW, I in no way condone piracy, but I absolutely HATE DRM and similar restrictions. Especially restrictions that prevent playback of media on anything but a current Windows box.

normally known as theft...

just like any really successful life organism, RIAA and others still do NOT comprehend the basic means of duplication/gain/sucess. that is, to flood the market with as many copies as possible with the greatest chances of combining with the target, just like sperm into a female. trying to secure it's own self gratifying greed, RIAA and the members it purports to protect are no better than high level feeders destined to extinction.. So There!

Isn't Blu-ray great, see, this is why the evil HD-DVD was so awful and horrible and had to be destroyed, we love all these lovely restrictions on our discs, its great.

Seriously, isn't it such a shame that all the fan-boys bought into the Blu hype that it was better. Better for the studios and Sony yes, better for consumers, certainly not.

Paris because like Sony and Blu, sucks.

these blokes really are tiring... will they never learn that there is no and can be no protection that can't be broken? if you can read it you can copy it. what a waste of money! paris cos they are almost as stupid.

A friend bought an internal BluRay drive plus some films, and they were unwatchable - clearly a 3.6GHz P4 with decent graphics card wasn't up to the job of playing DRM-encumbered legitimate shop-bought disks. Using AnyDVD on the same hardware with the same disk though was completely smooth. Which just shows how crippling the DRM decoders are - If anything I'd have expected it to be even more jerky since it clearly had to be removing the DRM on the fly?

Let anyone with an ounces of intelligence say together..

"TOLD YOU SO, I KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN!"

10 years to crack BD+ have passed soooo quickly ;-))

Stop this nonsense forthwith because:

Well Studios,........ think about it!

... just give me region free hacks, then I can watch the best version of whatever movie I like.

This is most interesting, what will become of the bloat/cost of Vista's DRM stuff now that it is no logner a leaver to make it the 'only way' to watch HD video on a PC?

Will they ever learn?

Lets hope they do, and kill of regional encoding and the 'no skip' sh*t that we have to put up with if we go down the legitimate path of buying a disk.

Customers are merely consumption units to be 'managed'.

One of the anti-HD arguments I've brought up is not the technology but the way that a relatively minor increment in picture quality is being used to vastly increase the level of control corporations have over stuff you've purchased. This is also why I'm not that happy about the end of analog broadcasting -- its not that I think its better but digital technology gives the greedy ones far too many toys to play with.

BluRay was never about what technology was 'better', at least for consumers. The corporations don't give a damn about the consumer; we're expected to just put up, shut up and pay up. Like most consumers I'm ignoring it.

If I opened a DVD shop and put up a sign that read "DVDs - £10 (American customers), £20 (Europeans), Africans and Asians £30 come back in 6 months." I would, quite rightly be prosecuted for racism if I hadn't been lynched by the public first. Why should large companies be able to do this if we can't? Not only are they allowed to but this racism is protected by law and we can be prosecuted for fighting it.

This geographical racism has no place in the modern, connected world. It's time we stood up, named and shamed these big corporations for their racist behaviour.

For it to be racism they would have to be using "race coding" rather than region coding e.g. if a white person bought a disc coded for black people it wouldn't play.

I think you'll find people from most races living in all of the DVD regions.

If you pick up a dictionary you'll be able to find out what the word racism means and hence use it properly in future.

How many times to people need to be told the difference between theft and copyright infringement? It's only theft if you never give the rental disc back.

Don't these folks at the movie industry realize Blu-Ray is already dead? The adult film industry chose to stick with it's current standard of regular old DVD instead of HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVD. Not only was that the first nail in the coffin, but it was the only one that counts.

And for the uninformed who think I'm just blowing smoke up your anal orfices, over 70% of all movies sold in North America are of the 'adult' persuasion. Yeah, you heard it right, more than 70% of all movies are porn, and the porn industry said 'no' to Blu-Ray and HD DVD, so they are both dead formats for home movies (unless of course they keep giving you the restrictive policies on when/where/how you can watch them and don't give you any other choice of how to do so ... oh wait! That's what they are doing isn't it?).

And if you think that's a whole lot of hooey as well, just look back in history - adult film industry chooses VHS over BETAMAX (hmm, wonder who won that race?). Adult film industry switches from VHS to DVD format, guess who won out that race? Now, adult film industry decides to stick with the current format instead of switching to either of the 'new and improved' formats. Sorry Sony (and others), you're spending money at an alarming rate on DRM that will be cracked before it hits the street, on a format that is not only doomed to fail for anything except data storage anyways but the majority of the public won't stand for your restrictive policies because the format is doomed to fail and you know it.

so you think the adult industry is just going to ignore hi-def?! i think you need to rethink your statement - the adult industry WILL go hi-def, consumer demand will ensure that, and what HD options do they have now? blu-ray me thinks.

Copied or not Blu-Ray is the next gen format for your films, streaming HD content from online sources is not really a viable option...yet (and don't come back with apple's or equivalent pathetic HD-Lite alternatives, they are not true HD).

The main trick up Blu-ray's sleeve, as far as copying goes, isnt the DRM (which will be totally hacked), but is the sheer size of them. Sure, hard drives are relatively cheap, but you're still only looking at around 25 - 35 HD films per terabyte - unless you're compressing them down (which misses the point if you're trying to retain quality) or copying them on to another BD disc (which currently are £12/disc (single layer) or thereabouts) then you may as well just buy the original thing! hard drives will obviously get bigger but at the moment what other choices are there? the majority of users aren't techie and won't/can't copy discs and will just keep fueling the HD evolution, which is certainly not dead!

In the UK a few years ago there was a case regarding sexual discrimination because a company gave different rights to part time workers, and most part time workers in that industry were female.

The company lost.

If you discriminate against a group which is largely or predominantly one section of society (race, religion, sex) then you are guilty (in the legal sense) of discriminating against that section of society regardless of your intent, under UK law, and I suspect most statutes with anti discrimination legislation.

The reason that media companies aren't guilty of racism in context is simply because there is no statute to cover it.

Alien logo: Because at some point our alien overlords will turn up, and sort out all those naughty countries.

End of.

"backing up rentals is theft" - if it wasnt for people backing up their rentals do you honestly think the video rental industry would hae taken off? ever since the days of vhs the only reason people paid the extortionate rental fees was they knew fine well they could make a copy and watch it whenever they wanted to

and lets face it, 95% of the crap on tv and pumped out by the movie studios isnt worh watching anyway...

AC

**IF** they had any brains or courage, they would sell 'first release' vids at £10 a shot, secondaries at £5 - this would mean a lot more would buy a 'proper box set' , and would be worth it for the shop... and also drive the 'pirates' out of business!!

BUT no, they cannot understand 'volume selling'... they only look at how much money they can get, and 'protecting property' - this is a red rag to the buying public, who can afford less & less, and of course the crackers, who *love* putting 'too rich' people's nose out of joint!!

I am looking forward to next year, when 'multiregion patched' Bluray players come out just like DVD ones did years ago.... :):)