The "new" DVD content control system

This is really entertaining, all these articles about the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) standard being developed by a bunch of tech companies along with Disney and Warner Brothers. Here are a few of the articles I read:

Cnet news: Tech, studio giants team on new DVD locks

Slashdot: Industry Group Would Permit (Some) DVD Copying

p2pnet.net: Hollywood DVD copying scheme

I suppose it's the successor to DeCSS: the group is attempting to define the new standard for future high definition DVD disks, the first-stage disc-level encoding that any DVD player must be able to decode in order to play the video. They are somehow bent on ensuring that the content is usable in other devices and personal home networks, which in principle is a good idea. The truth is, if tech companies do make user-friendly processes for getting your fair use rights out of the media - which for example would include allowing you to watch movies on your computer and listen to music on your iPod, allowing you to store the data on a central file server in your home network and stream it from multiple computers in your house - then a large number of people will not bother to find ways around the encoding, because simply everything they really want to do will be easy and perfectly legal. They may not be able to copy the data to their friends, but if that is the only thing technologically prevented, that won't bother too many people.

In practice, I'd be astonished if this were actually possible. Only Warner and Disney signed on to this group, so there could be other content producers who refuse to play nice. Even more than that, it's not at all clear that the new system will replace other DRM technologies - some articles such as the one on the Register imply that this will be a complete package, and others such as the CNet article linked above say clearly that they will be separate:

Members of the group said the new technology would be complementary to other digital rights management and content protection systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Media.

I don't know how far along the standard is (few details appear to be present). I do know that they're really making bold statements (it's a new fusion and market opportunity and stuff like that - as p2pnet.net puts it in their article, "equine excreta").

I also know that logic dictates that any encoding must be decodable by any DVD player. And just as DeCSS was decoded, so will this be. And laws won't stop you because there are people outside the US who also like movies. Maybe using a multiple-key system will help a bit (or at least make the descramble code too complicated to put on a T-shirt), but it won't solve the entire problem. If there's enough information in the source to allow it to be decoded then someone will figure out how to use that information to write their own decoder.