Rob Pegoraro on Unintended Consequences of AACS “take down” letter to Digg
Rob Pegoraro writes about unintended consequences.
In this case, Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Administrator asked Digg to take down a posting of the key used by AACS copy protection on high definition DVDs.
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Thing is, the AACS group has already done everything necessary to stop the damage caused by the hack of its system. In April, it changed the key used on new discs, which Ayers said would protect those movies from being copied using the exposed key.
If this group had merely yanked that key and then shut up about the entire issue, it might have accomplished something. Instead, its clumsy attempts to wipe it off the Web have shoved the key into the headlines– ensuring that any interested programmer has now discovered this “secret.”