Blu-ray BD+ copy-protection cracked?
Tell someone they can't do something, and you'd better believe they'll try harder at it. That's certainly been the case with Blu-ray's copy-protection system, BD+, defeating which has been a work-in-progress for some time now at the Doom9 forum. Now, it's looks like they might have actually done it, using a virtual BD+ machine.
If you visited that link above and then recoiled in confused horror, you're not the only one. The basic explanation is that the team have taken advantage of virtualization to recreate the BD+ virtual machine created each time a Blu-ray disc is loaded into a player. This machine is responsible for checking that the player is authentic; if not, it can mangle the content playback, prevent output and other frustrating things.
Because Blu-ray BD+ was intended to be used with both hardware and software players, this has apparently given the Doom9 team a head-start. Still, if you listen to the analysts, BD+ was supposed to remain unhackable for at least 10 years.
What this means is open-source Linux playback of Blu-ray content is one step closer, and people who were holding off from investing in a Blu-ray player because they couldn't back up their media might begin to reconsider it.