Copy Protection Problems Delay Hi-Def DVDs

A format war is bad, but it's hard to say if a delayed format war is better or worse. Thanks to problems with an aspect of the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy-protection scheme, HD DVD and Blu-ray production has been held up. In an amusing twist, the delay is due to a problem with BD+, a Blu-ray-specific encryption scheme; but since it holds up the finalization of the AACS scheme, HD DVD can't get out of the start gate either.

I like the idea of BD+ from a problem-solving standpoint; it allows the Blu-ray Disc Group to change encryption schemes on future BD releases, in case -- sorry, when -- an existing scheme is cracked. From a practical standpoint, it seems like a waste of time and money. The people who work at cracking these things don't care so much about the time and money spent doing so; meanwhile, the Blu-ray folks will have to throw money at hordes of programmers every time they have to come up with a new algorithm. (And guess who'll be paying for that expense.)

The Blu-ray people figure they're learning from DVDs. After all, once the DeCSS genie was out of the bottle, anyone could copy DVDs. But have they really learned? Despite their vulnerability, DVDs bring in more revenue than movies do. In the real world, consumers don't bother cracking DVDs because they either lack the know-how or would rather just spend the twenty bucks on a movie and be done with it. And really, that's all that's necessary: a deterrent strong enough that 95% of the public would rather just buy the thing. But because Blu-ray wants a foolproof system -- a pipe dream if there ever was one -- the entire industry, from hardware makers to movie studios to consumers, has to wait.