The thread title is totally misleading. Nothing has been "cracked". They are merely able to create an image of the data structure of the disc. If you read that article you linked to, you will see that the did this on a linux pc long ago.
Having an image of the discs and actually doing something with them are 2 different things. If people remember back to DVD, it wasn't until CSS encryption was cracked, that we could even modify the data and still have a usable image. Getting an image of the discs not only was the easiest step, but probably one that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD made no attempt to prevent.
LOL, An image like this is unplayable anyway since it's still encrypted. And here's the kicker: this anti-BD stuff actually hurts HD-DVD since, guess what, HD-DVD uses the same AACS encyption for copy-protection as BD does. Of course BD has an ADDITIONAL two layers of copy-protection on top of that, that HD-DVD does not have (a big reason for FOX's exclusivity), so when the AACS gets cracked HD-DVD's will be the first ones playable.
While this is not a major news story, is there anyone who actually thinks ths copy protection used on either BD or HD won't be cracked in a few months. There are hackers out there that live for the challange.
Copy protection is about as useful in protecting content as just say no is to birth control. It all looks good on paper, but in the real world, it is meaningless.
An extra two layers just means they will have to spend a couple of extra days cracking it.
I'm not so sure about that. Encryption has reached a point where it's nearly impossible to brute force crack. I think it's far more likely they'll find a way to capture the data after the hardware has already decrypted it and before HDCP happens. I know that the Playstation Portable encryption has never really been cracked. They use the PSP hardware to decrypt the data, but do not have the capability of doing so without the PSP since they lack the decryption keys. The PSP was realsed 2 years ago, and the only reason it was compromised is because Sony left several exploits in the early firmware.
In order for the HD formats to be "cracked" any time soon, someone making a hardware/software player is going to have to make a big mistake. This is why AACS includes the ability to lock out specific players. If a player is compromised, they can plug the hole by preventing future software from working in it.
Personally, I don't believe that region encoding is the real reason why piracy exists for movies. It's either Hollywood's inability or simple disregard to think worldwide when it comes to releasing their product. Every area of the world has a different release date for a movie. Using Casino Royale as an example it was released starting on Nov 14 in London and its last release will be January 5th in Italy. That is almost a two month discrepancy between the first day a release and the last. And usually the DVDs are sometimes worse. I had the DVD of Capote from Amazon before it was released into theaters here (Japan). Episode 3 was even worse for me, Everywhere else in the world it was released either the same day or within one or two weeks of the US but in Japan it was July 9th. Hollywood seems to have this localized idea and ignores the fact that they are creating this problem by having such lengthy release windows for their movies both theatrically and home. There will always be people who want something for nothing but why give them an excuse. It is time for Hollywood to start thinking globally.
For Episode III (and probably all movies), the main problem in getting the movie out at the same time across the world was getting all the translations done in time. Japanese is apparently the toughest and that's why it took an extra long time between when most of the world got it and when it hit Japan.
Actually, translations are begun as soon as the script is finished. The people that do the translation get almost the same amount of time, sometimes more, as the people who write the novelizations. Translating into Japanese is not anymore of a difficulty than translating into Chinese (released May 19 in both Cantonese and Mandarin) or Korean (May 26). The reason for Episode 3's late release is that they had a big premier for it with all the stars coming over. It was obviously the time when all their schedules coincided. If you look at the numbers for big Hollywood releases in China you can see that China used to have very late release dates for films. But as China is the MPAA's chief piracy enemy, more and more big releases are being released fairly close to the US release in an effort to combat piracy there. Warner Bros. in particular does this practice now with their DVD's, even releasing them before the US.
I don't know what to tell other than that I've heard multiple times that Episode III was harder to get done in time for Japanese release due to the translation.
EDIT: Just for the record, I'm not saying that I'm right. I'm just saying that that's the info that I've heard.
No, it was all marketing. NHK (the national TV broadcaster) even said that because one of the questions asked was why it took so long to come to Japan.
Region coding exists because it's easier to sell duplication rights piecemeal. Someone recently gave me a copy of Riget 1/2, two films released in 1994 and 1997. Before playing the discs, I had to alter my region code to "2".
Region encoding was created to give the studios geographic control over DVD release dates and to help stop copyright infringement. It had nothing to do with selling the rights to do with duplication and everything to do with control of product. The DVD Forum originally wanted to make DVD region free but the studios balked at this because they thought it would lead to increased piracy. In fact the studios stance on region encoding has been taken court as an illegal practice against international trade laws set forth by the WTO. Court cases in New Zealand and Australia against this practice have been successful and DVD players in that area are sold as Region 0. The studios have somewhat seen the light in terms of region encoding with Blu-ray (only 3) and HDDVD (region free, so far) and have instead decided to concentrate all their efforts into strong arming the CE manufacturers into more and more draconian DRM (which has been discussed at great length on this forum).
Also I just recently realized how HDCP is terrible in practice. I never thought of this. Now I can't surf to a TV channel for a second. As soon as I switch to TV, the BD player stops because there is no HDCP at the TV end! Extremely annoying!
I'm taking Japanese this semester(First year), and thus far I've found it an order of magnitude easier than German. Not counting the writing of course, that's so different from romanized it's very hard, but if you already know how to write it translating shouldn't be bad.
But the actual language isn't all that bad. Especially since Japanese borrows quite a bit of modern words, like Computer and reform their sound a little to fit the language.
Personally, I think German with all of it's possessives that mutate depending on the possesser is much more difficult.
Maybe...but I've yet to hear of anyone being able to copy a DVD-Audio disc. Those have been around for 4 years or so. Perhaps someone has cracked them, but I have never heard of it.