April, 2007: Sony ARccOS Copy Protection Bricks DVD Players

Author: Chris Brook

With the DRM rootkit debacle still visible in the rear view mirror, Sony
again found itself in hot water over copy protection gone wrong in
2007. This time the problem was with Sony’s Advanced Regional Copy
Control Operating Solution (ARccOS), which shipped with some DVDs. The
technology was designed to foil DVD copying programs, or “rippers.”
Alas, ARccOS was incompatible with a wide range of DVD players then in
use, including one model released by Sony, itself.

With the DRM rootkit debacle still visible in the rear view mirror, Sony
again found itself in hot water over copy protection gone wrong in
2007. This time the problem was with Sony’s Advanced Regional Copy
Control Operating Solution (ARccOS), which shipped with some DVDs. The
technology was designed to foil DVD copying programs, or “rippers.”
Alas, ARccOS was incompatible with a wide range of DVD players then in
use, including one model released by Sony, itself. After blaming device
manufacturers, the company offered to replace the DVDs of affected users
with copies that included an “updated” version of ARccOS. Many users,
meanwhile, chose to download software tools online that allowed them to
circumvent ARccOS and play (or copy) their DVDs, anyway.

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