HD-DVD and Blu Ray discs haven't been on the market for long, but a tool called BackupHDDVD is already available to help users evade the discs' DRM. Is this tool the end of the AACS encryption scheme, or will the movie studios be able to repair the hole? Computer security experts Ed Felten and Alex Halderman have the answer in a series of posts that puts in layman's terms how AACS works and how it might be attacked.

The bottom line: "[BackupHDDVD] isn't a big deal by itself, but it is the first step in the meltdown of AACS."

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