PVRWire is reporting that several members of an online forum have discovered the "Volume Unique Keys" for a number of HD DVD movie titles. These hard-coded keys appear to be the main requirement in order to backup/copy a DVD.
However, it also mentions Key Revocation, which can supposedly render new discs inoperable on players shown to be the source of such cracks, until they're updated. This is part of the AACS access control system.
It all feels a bit confusing. Ars Technica, for example, was talking about this kind of issue in December:
If all of this pans out (and that's a pretty big if, at this time), we'll get the chance to see how robust key revocation is with AACS. The planners behind this next-gen content protection system designed it to deal with this kind of situation. That doesn't mean it will actually work, of course.Hypothetical fallout could be something like this: if PowerDVD is the source of the keys, an AACS initiative will be launched to revoke the player's keys to render it inoperable and in need of an update. There is some confusion regarding this process, however. It is not the case that you can protect a cracked player by hiding it offline (the idea being that the player will never "update" with new code that way). Instead, the player's existing keys will be revoked at the disc level, meaning that new pressings of discs won't play on the cracked player. In this way, hiding a player from updates will not result in having a cracked player that will work throughout the years. It could mean that all bets are off for discs that are currently playable on the cracked player, however (provided it is not updated). Again, this is all hypothetical at this time.
Two things at least are certain: the system will be tested soon enough, and cracking techniques will continue to evolve for as long as copy-protection systems exist.
(Via PVRWire)
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