How did aacs come about?

[insomniak1981]

I know this isnt really a decrypting question but it is something that has really started to interest me ever since I saw muslix64's post on a different site. I have followed almost everything that has been written since december 27th on this site that has to do with the whole hi-def format decryption, but I do have a question. If companies have been on one of two sides and pumped millions of dollars into the format they have backed, how come they are both using aacs? Did they both pump money into this? Was the DRM decided before the formats were finished? How come such greatly contested formats use the same DRM? I am seriously interested to know and would be grateful for any information on this.

[Manao]

AACS wasn't broken, it's still secure. The problem lies within the software implementations of AACS, which wasn't obsfucated enough to prevent reverse engineering.

[insomniak1981]

i never said anything was broken, I just asked why two competing formats were using the same DRM. Both camps have pumped millions into their respective formats so why wouldn't they each use their own DRM?

[awhitehead]

I know this isnt really a decrypting question but it is something that has really started to interest me ever since I saw muslix64's post on a different site. I have followed almost everything that has been written since december 27th on this site that has to do with the whole hi-def format decryption, but I do have a question. If companies have been on one of two sides and pumped millions of dollars into the format they have backed, how come they are both using aacs? Did they both pump money into this? Was the DRM decided before the formats were finished? How come such greatly contested formats use the same DRM? I am seriously interested to know and would be grateful for any information on this.

AACS was developed by a consortium. Different parts came from different people.

Basically Intel was working on securing the content when copied between media, IBM figured out how to do the subset difference aspect.

Specifically, unsung heros of subset difference are Moni and Dalit Naor.
Here is Intel's side of the story:
http://www.intel.com/standards/case/case_cp.htm
And here is an explanation of AACS from a former IBM manager, that highlights the contribution by the Naros: http://web.archive.org/web/20060604054302/http://www.lotspiech.com/AACS/

Moni Naor's website: http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~naor/ ("Technical papers" link has some on subset difference method). NNL paper in question (on subset difference): http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~naor/PAPERS/2nl.pdf
(Ken, ani medaber ivrit)

Cheers!

[insomniak1981]

Hey, thanks a lot awhitehead. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.:thanks: