The Advanced Access Content System is a new standard in the progress of software development, which will allow limited sharing and copying of the next generation of DVDs.

The group developing it includes Microsoft, Sony, Disney, IBM, Matsushita, and Warner Brothers. The standard has been adopted as the copy-protection scheme for HD-DVDs, and is expected to be used for Blu-ray too.

The proposal is based on broadcast encryption using Naor-Naor-Lotspiech subset difference trees. The proposal was voted one of the technologies most likely to fail by IEEE Spectrum magazine. Concerns about the approach include its similarity to past systems that failed, such as Content Scrambling System, and the inability to preserve security against hacking attacks that compromise large numbers of players.

The specs for the product have now been publicly released (as of April 2005).

See also

• Content Scrambling System

External links

• AACS homepage
• Specifications
• Whitepaper on the technology (PDF)
• Reuters report on CNN
• IEEE Spectrum Article