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My legally purchased copy of PowerDVD is refusing to play Bluray discs made after a certain date:
Astonishingly, this is "standard practice" for all versions of PowerDVD.
In my case, this means that many Blurays produced after May 2011 no longer work with my player. I can't watch Star Wars, I can't watch Indiana Jones, I can't watch Prometheus, I can't watch the new Criterion remaster of Seven Samurai... Even though I've legally bought a Bluray player!
Cyberlink's solution is to simply buy the latest version of their software.
Having already spent the cost of a hardware Bluray player ($100+) for their software equivalent, you can imagine I'm pretty reticent about being forced to it again. What's worse is that I purchased PowerDVD in November 2009, meaning I had less than 18 months of trouble free use(!).
Their latest version of PowerDVD is $125, and Lord knows how long that would function for...!
Seeing how I legally own a Bluray player, and genuine Bluray discs, is there not any way I can manually update the AACS keys for PowerDVD myself??
This seems like yet another occasion where the pirates get a better deal than those of us who pay their money to do things legitimately :(
Django Reinhardt
Posted 2012-10-21T21:08:34.217
Reputation: 4 183
The question seems to be about legal issues and licensing. – bummi – 2015-03-24T09:44:33.533
@bummi It's nothing to do with licensing. It's just about them (previously) refusing to update the AACS keys -- which are not created or owned by them, and (for comparison) are updated as standard by all hardware blu-ray players. CyberLink have apparently changed their policies now, though, claiming they will supply AACS key updates... provided you jump through enough hoops. – Django Reinhardt – 2015-03-24T11:02:17.643
1If the official way to update the keys is to pay for them (via buying the newer version), and doing it any other way constitutes piracy, this is probably not the best place to ask such a question. – Karan – 2012-10-21T21:19:45.450
I would say: 1) Do not buy proprietary software 2) Do not buy Blurays while the AACS has not been cracked – Guillaume Brunerie – 2012-10-21T21:24:18.427
1@Karan How does this constitute piracy exactly? The keys are not owned by Cyberlink, they're just deliberately not updating their player in order to force users to buy the latest version. – Django Reinhardt – 2012-10-21T21:28:58.873
Can a manufacturer of a hardware player legally choose not to update its AACS keys after some time? Seems the developers of software players can certainly do so, or else Cyberlink wouldn't be able to get away with it. So if what they're doing is legal (albeit reprehensible), what I'm asking is that is what you want to do also legal? Since Cyberlink probably needs to pay AACS LA licensing fees, I doubt you can legally obtain updated keys from somewhere for free.
– Karan – 2012-10-21T21:41:12.110@JohnnyW How are you planning to get the new AACS keys? This is already piracy, you are not allowed to have them in your possession unless they are hidden in a proprietary software or hardware player… Moreover if your version of PowerDVD does not have a way to update the keys (I don’t know if this is the case), then trying to update the keys anyway is also piracy. Welcome to the wonderful world of proprietary software and digital rights management. – Guillaume Brunerie – 2012-10-21T21:47:24.827
@JohnnyW: BTW, I read through the CyberLink forum thread you linked to. I wonder what became of nagpig's Trading Standards complaint? I would certainly be very interested in seeing this sort of thing being challenged in court (with both CyberLink and AACS LA as defendants). Kill all DRM!
– Karan – 2012-10-21T22:09:16.8601@JohnnyW Perhaps you can try with VLC 2.0.4. You will have to install separately the AACS decoding library and keys (because it’s illegal) but if you’re lucky your disks might be encrypted with one of the known keys. Of course I can’t give a link here but you will easily find the keys in Google. – Guillaume Brunerie – 2012-10-22T00:24:44.253
1Agh, this is so frustrating. If I wanted to resort to breaking the law, I wouldn't have purchased the player software. Imagine buying a CD player that refused to play CDs after a certain date. It's unbelievable :( – Django Reinhardt – 2012-10-23T23:26:05.230
So I've sent a letter to Consumer Reports (USA), Which Magazine (UK), and AdviceGuide (the new ConsumerDirect in the UK). Hopefully one of them will advise! – Django Reinhardt – 2012-10-28T19:45:50.793
Their advice was there was nothing I can do. – Django Reinhardt – 2013-05-19T16:07:03.350