The DRM war games continue, with SlySoft's AnyDVD cracking the supposedly uncrackable second generation of Blu-ray copyright protection as researchers discover DRM vulnerabilities in Windows.

AnyDVD HD lets you remove region coding, copyright protection and HDCP restrictions from DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray movies - which means the discs can be backed up to your hard drive or copied to another disc. The software is available as a 21 day trial but, considering the full version only costs $US79 and entitles you to lifetime upgrades, most media centre owners would consider it an essential tool.

AnyDVD HD was already capable of breaking the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy protection used on most HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles. AnyDVD HD version 6.1.9.6 beta reportedly bypasses BD+ as well, the second layer of Blu-ray protection introduced after AACS was hacked. BD+ is a mini operating system which can run programs to check if the Blu-ray player has been tampered with. So far it's only been used on The Day After Tomorrow and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

While the cracking of BD+ might be considered good news by some, the danger is it will force the movie houses to take even more extreme measures which could end up putting us all at risk. We all remember the Sony rootkit fiasco, with Sony using hacker cloaking tools on audio CDs to hide its DRM on Windows. Unfortunately it also left open a back door for the so-called bad guys. Now researchers have revealed a recently found vulnerability in Macrovision copy protection is already being exploited - a vulnerability that is incorporated in XP and Vista.

The copyright police won't take the BD+ hack lying down, but what might they resort to next? Sony-gate certainly helped turn the tide of public opinion against audio DRM, but what kind of disaster will it take before movie fans also demand an end to the unwinnable war?