There's a cat and mouse game that goes on between those who produce professional videos and those who want to watch those videos on their own terms. Every time the folks behind DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, or HD-DVDs serve up a new DRM scheme, hackers go to work trying to figure out how to circumvent that encryption. You can look at this as a noble or malicious act: either the hackers want to make sure you can watch the movie on any machine you choose, or they want to make sure you can upload the videos to file sharing sites. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle.
Earlier this year SlySoft released a commercial application for ripping HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. The only problem is that disc manufacturers could keep offering up new encryption keys that would make the software obsolete.
Now SlySoft has released an updated version of AnyDVD that it says it "future-proof," because it includes an artificial intelligence agent that figures out how to strip DRM from movies even if those movies are encrypted using a previously unknown key.
Update: It looks like the "AI Scanner" only works with DVDs, not HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Considering it's been pretty easy to rip DVDs for some time now, that makes this "future-proof" guarantee a bit less exciting.
[via Extreme Tech]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-16-2007 @ 11:32PM
Marcelo said...
How can it be "future prof"? Impossible! There is no algorithm that is able to predict how technology will be on the future. The only thing I read here is "BUY ME"
http://tatoo-tutorial.marcelo7300.com.ar/
Marcelo
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10-17-2007 @ 5:06AM
Fred Thompson said...
In the mid-1980s there was an Apple ][ program called "The End" or "The One", something like that, which claimed to be the last program you would ever buy because it would write whatever application you would want. Methinks "future-proof" is really "future-poof"...
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10-17-2007 @ 8:35AM
Ken said...
Brilliant
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10-17-2007 @ 8:35AM
Shibathedog said...
To back it up im sure they are offering lifetime updates or something in case it stops working
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10-17-2007 @ 8:36AM
FuckBush said...
According to the official Slysoft forum, the 'AI Scanner', as its called, is for DVD mediums only, not HD-DVD or Blu-ray:
6.1.8.4 2007 10 11
- New (DVD): New "AI Scanner(tm)" copy protection removal
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=8497
this was posted before but the comment was removed...
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10-17-2007 @ 8:38AM
Franklin said...
Maybe the "artificial intelligence algorithm" is simply the program periodically checking online for an updated decryption key and then downloading and installing it.
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10-17-2007 @ 8:40AM
Brad Linder said...
FB: Whoops. When I first saw that comment I thought you were (correctly) pointing out that I had accidentally linked to the DVD version of the software, and not the HD version.
But you're right, the release notes to seem to indicate that the AI scanner is DVD-only.
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12-17-2007 @ 7:41AM
Jeff said...
Hey Dudes ,
Tryed Backing up Pirates of the Carib. 3 IT FAILED ...
AND YOU WNT ME TO PAY FOR THIS ..AI ...RIGHT BLOW ME
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