Amazon users have been reporting that newly acquired Sony Media disks are not playing in their DVD players, is this an outcome from the AACS key hacking, or did Sony forget to add the key updates to their media?
Techwag, Amazon, Slashdot are all reporting that there are issues with some of the disks coming from Sony Corp for DVD’s that could be tied to the AACS hacking that happened over the Christmas and into March 2007.
The idea behind AACS was that the media would be able to access the firmware and update the public and private keys using the DVD/HD-DVD/Blue Ray Media to update the firmware of the players that understand the AACS encryption scheme. That was its big selling point. However, users on Amazon are reporting that this process is not working in some Sony and other equipment that they are trying to play their DVD’s in.
The news on this is spreading slowly, but at least one person, in a single entry blog has stated that the Sony DRM schema is the problem, and that the customer is going to have to update the firmware for their players to get the disks to play. Which is contrary to the AACS schema, users updating the firmware of their players, players that do not connect to the internet is going to be problematic. Most users will simply take the disk back to the point of purchase and ask for their money back.
If Sony Disks have revoked the AACS keys for what was hacked, the master and some systems keys, without updating the players with new keys, this will impose a burden on the end user that they are not familiar with. Firmware updates are usually automated to keep them out of the realm of the standard end user, rather than insisting that the end user does the firmware updates on their own.
How this plays out over time will be interesting, but if there really is another problem with Sony DRM and DVD Players, it will be interesting to see what kind of support and or solutions Sony will supply along with the problem.
