The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD encryption schemes have both been broken by the same person. That means the content protection on certain discs is now useless and one particular software player is compromised. Now the issue is this: the entertainment industry will revoke the keys used by that software player that allowed the decryption. Users who continue to use that software will be unable to play new movies produced after the break, because the software simply won't be capable of decrypting the movie for playback. They'll have to upgrade.
Sounds like not too bad a solution? Well, replace the word "software" above with "hardware" and imagine that the break had been performed with a set-top box. Would you like to hear that your expensive set-top box is now nothing but a paperweight because some guy used its key to break DRM? Hell no. But that's exactly what will happen if someone uses a hardware player to break HD-DVD or Blu-Ray DRM.
As grim and frustrating as those consequences would be, I'd like to see it happen. Once consumers start losing a few thousand dollars each because of big media paranoia, there's going to be an angry response. That response should get media publishers to rethink their strategies, especially since it's not the angry consumers who caused the problem.
Mokalus of Borg
PS - And that might be the catalyst to end content "protection" forever.
PPS - You know its only effect is to hurt legitimate customers, right?
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