First HD-DVD hacked and shared
The uncrackable (yeah, right) HD-DVD format has been cracked, and high-definition content is now being distributed freely – and obviously illegally – over the BitTorrent file-sharing networks.
The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent was Serenity, the Joss Whedon Firefly blockbuster. It’s said that HD-DVDs of the films Batman Begins, The Chronicles of Riddick, 12 Monkeys and King Kong have been decrypted and are now showing up on torrent sites around the world.
A reported handful of very clever hackers have figured out how to extract the unique volume key from HD-DVDs. HDTV Blogger reports that the torrent is:
a 19.6GB file in native EVO format that should play on PowerDVD and WinDVD with HD DVD playback.
He says he got a nasty email after posting about the first HD-DVD torrent. The anonymous emailer was upset at the fact that he was drawing unnecessary attention to it within the P2P community. Of course, sending anonymous intimidatory emails is a sure-fire guaranteed way of getting more publicity for something than even the most attention-hungry D-list celebrity could handle. Was it a film company executive or someone playing at being one? Well, who can say…? What we do know is that this news will be very upsetting for the people who fund the films and those who make HD-DVD hardware.
I’m waiting for HD-DVD players to become affordable. I’ve never been into downloading films any more than I was ever up for buying dodgy copies from market stalls. I’m quite content to watch films legally in glorious HD on the two Sky Movie channels that show nothing but HD films in the UK. Even the most lame films become a lot more interesting to watch in HD but epics like The Day After Tomorrow and Lord of the Rings are simply breathtaking when seen and heard in their full intended glory in your own living room.
And don’t forget, if you are tempted to download a pirated HD-DVD film, it’s not only illegal but pointless unless you’ve got a HD-TV to watch it on. And if you can spend a big whack of cash on a telly and Sky HD subscription, why bother trawling the ‘net for content that could land you in trouble if you’re tracked?
Read more on this story here.
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2 comments on “First HD-DVD hacked and shared”
January 16th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
That didnt stay secure for long !
January 17th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Exactly. Nothing where computers and technology are concerned can ever truly be said to be secure if someone is determined and patient enough to have a go at cracking it. This is one reason, civil liberty issues aside, that I refuse to believe a national ID database would be a good thing under any circumstance. That information would be as gold to many people, from terrorist groups and rogue nations through to borderline-illegal companies sending mailouts and making sales calls. I don’t trust the government when it talks of ’safety’ and ’security’ with technology. Neither are possible. Hell, even the Pentagon systems were cracked by a UK UFO spotter! x
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