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ARccOS ProtectionFrom CryptoDox, The Online Encyclopedia on Cryptography and Information SecurityARccOS is a copy-protection system developed by Sony used on some DVDs. Designed as an additional form of copy protection, it is used in conjunction with Content Scramble System (CSS). The system deliberately creates a number of sectors on the DVD with corrupted data that cause DVD copying software to produce errors. Normal DVD players never read these sectors since they follow a set of instructions encoded on the disc telling them to skip them. Less sophisticated DVD copying programs do not follow these instructions and instead try to read every sector on the disk sequentially, including the bad ones. Slysoft's AnyDVD, Fengtao's DVDFab Decrypter, RipIt4Me + DVD Decrypter + FixVTS, MacTheRipper (freeware), along with VLC media player[1] and MPlayer/MEncoder (for Linux) are usually able to overcome ARccOS protection. ARccOS had reportedly been discontinued by Sony in February of 2006.[2] However, several high-profile releases since then have used it, including the region 1 DVDs for "Hostel" (2006), "Underworld: Evolution" (2006), "Running With Scissors" (2006), and "Casino Royale" (2006). Many DVDs by Disney, Touchstone Pictures, and The Weinstein Company also use ARccOS - including "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", "Flightplan", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and "Lucky Number Slevin". Despite being promoted as 'Fully compatible with available DVD players and drives'[3], some DVD players can not play movies encoded using ARccOS protection: Sony DVPCX995, Toshiba SD4700, Harman Kardon DVD101, Microsoft XBOX and others. [4] Sony has announced a future firmware update for their players to fix this incompatibility issue.[5][6] Sony Customer Service is now offering re-issued replacements for defective discs.[7][8] References
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