August 10th 2005

Blu-Ray To Get Three Layered Copy Protection

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In an effort to avoid the piracy issues that have plagued the DVD format, the Blu-Ray Disc Association have announced a comprehensive content management system for the next gen optical disc.

The system, called Advanced Access Content System (AACS), has already been adopted by Blu-Ray's rival, HD-DVD. However, Blu-Ray adds wo extra layers of protection with "BD+", a Blu-ray-specific enhancement for content protection renewability, and ROM Mark, a measure unique to Blu-ray to guard against mass production piracy. While invisible to consumers, this ROM Mark can only be mastered with equipment available to licensed BD-ROM manufacturers, essentially preventing unauthorized copies of a disc.

"Content protection is a critical issue for next-generation media distribution," said IDC's Joshua Martin, Associate Research Analyst, Consumer Markets. "Finalizing the content protection scheme is critical for the launch of blue laser optical disc technology, and new protection schemes should allow for increased consumer flexibility while better protecting prerecorded content compared to current DVD technology."