Oh, yes, BD+ was cracked (and how!)

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The latest version of SlySoft’s AnyDVD, as of one week ago, can crack BD+, the copy protection used on some commercial Blu-ray discs. It’s the same BD+ that caused problems for some stand-alone Blu-ray players last fall, and it’s the same BD+ that made me (and other folks who enjoy a high-def movie rip every so often) weary of the Sony-backed technology’s victory. In a larger, more honest sense I couldn’t give a damn which one “won,” but anything that impedes my ability to watch 1080p rips on my big(ish) screen is looked upon with some amount of disdain.

But to the point—rips of BD+ films are now all over the Internet. I’ve hinted in the past on where these can be found, and if you have the means I suggest you investigate further. You’ll want a bag of popcorn, too.

The AnyDVD software runs only on Windows and costs €30, or approximately $7.5 trillion.

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I spent the better part of my weekend of my last spring break ever! watching illicitly obtained films that were once encumbered by BD+. I, Robot; The Simpsons Movie; Ronin; Independence Day; the list goes on. (Some I merely downloaded and archived for my next movie night, no Apple TV required.)

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Hi-res version, oh my!

SlySoft has said that while it’s likely the movie studios will change the way BD+ works with future releases (meaning stand-alone players will have to be updated… the PS3 looks better by the day), the man hours they’ve put into AnyDVD won’t have been for naught. From the company’s press release:

We are rather proud to have brought back to earth the highly-praised and
previously “unbreakable” BD+. However, we must also admit that the
Blu-ray titles released up to now have not fully exploited the
possibilities of BD+. Future releases will undoubtedly have a modified
and more polished BD+ protection, but we are well prepared for this
and await the coming developments rather relaxed.

Basically, once a new version of BD+ arrives, SlySoft will have our backs, in double-quick time.

All in all, a happy time to be a “surreptitious” little pirate, as one Toshiba suit described them (us?) about two years ago at some New York event.