History
According to the creator of BackupHDDVD, he or she first set out to circumvent AACS to bypass a restriction in software HD DVD players which reduced the quality of AACS restricted 1080p high definition video to that of standard definition DVD video or refused to play outright unless an HDCP compliant chain of video hardware was present. At the time only a few computer monitors and video cards supported HDCP. As a result, configurations that would have allowed high-definition HD DVD viewing in software players were exceptionally rare.
On December 18, 2006, a video which showed BackupHDDVD being used to decrypt and copy the film Full Metal Jacket to a hard drive was uploaded to YouTube. Two days after the video was uploaded, the initial version of the utility along with its source code and documentation was uploaded to a file hosting service. A link to the file was then posted by the utility's creator on the forums of Doom9, a website devoted to DVD backup. The utility's documentation, along with the forum post, contained little information as to how necessary keys could be obtained. The author elaborated in another forum post, claiming that keys could be obtained by exploiting the necessity for them to be held in memory to allow playback in player software.
On January 2, 2007, the author posted the 1.0 version of the BackupHDDVD utility, which included support for the decoding of discs using volume keys. For several weeks following the utility's release no success using the author's key extraction technique was reported. In mid-January 2007, a volume key was published by another member of the Doom9 forum along with an explanation of the technique used to obtain it. Other forum members quickly discovered keys for different titles. Keys for many discs are now readily available on the internet.
Further development of BackupHDDVD was being hosted on SourceForge until the site received a DMCA takedown notice alleging a violation in late February. In compliance with the notice, the project was immediately removed. Several versions of BackupHDDVD have been released by individuals other than the original author, including some versions with GUIs and the ability to locate keys on the internet or scan for them in memory automatically. HDDecrypter, a port of BackupHDDVD to C with a native Windows GUI is also available. This version supports multiple CPU threads and runs faster than its Java counterparts. While development of BackupHDDVD has ceased, a commercial HD DVD decryption utility called Slysoft AnyDVD HD exists which relies on compromised AACS processing or media keys to allow for the backup or unrestricted viewing of any AACS-protected discs without the need for title or volume keys.
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