ARccOS Protection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ARccOS 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 ripping 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 + DVD Shrink, MacTheRipper (freeware), and VLC media player (for Linux) are usually able to overcome ARccOS protection.
ARccOS had reportedly been discontinued by Sony in February of 2006. [1] However, several high-profile releases since then have used it, including the R1 (United states and Canada) DVDs for "Hostel" (18 April 2006), "Underworld: Evolution" (6 June 2006), "The Pink Panther" (13 June 2006), and "RV" (15 August 2006). Many DVDs by Disney, Touchstone Pictures, and The Weinstein Company also use ARccOS - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", "Flightplan", and "Lucky Number Slevin".
