In a cryptic message posted on its website, SlySoft, a company that made several applications devoted to defeating DRM schemes, announced that it has shut down. “Due to recent regulatory requirements we have had to cease all activities relating to SlySoft Inc.,” reads the brief message. “We wish to thank our loyal customers/clients for their patronage over the years.”

SlySoft made its name by creating software capable of defeating the Content Scrambling System used by DVDs and later by defeating the Advanced Access Content System and BD+ DRM used by Blu-ray and HD DVD.

In 2016, a time when digital distribution is ubiquitous, the landscape of a decade ago seems almost quaint. Content creators were just as determined to keep video as locked down as they are today, but the battle was waged with DRMed optical discs on one side and decryption software on the other. And SlySoft’s AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD were favored weapons of Windows users who wanted to copy DRMed movies to their hard drives for personal use (and for uploading to P2P sites). Even if you didn't care too much about format-shifting, AnyDVD made it possible to skip past trailers users were forced to watch on DVD players.

Unlike CSS, which was easily defeated, AACS used encryption keys that could be modified after the fact. In addition, Blu-ray used an additional layer of protection called BD+. That led to a cat-and-mouse game where SlySoft would announce it had cracked discs protected by BD+, only to have the movie studios and the Blue-ray Disc Association update the encryption keys.

The reason for SlySoft’s sudden shutdown aren’t known. Headquartered in the Caribbean nation of Antigua, the software firm had been the target of vitriol and legal threats from the film industry throughout the years. Myce, which was first to report SlySoft’s shutdown, notes that the company had been found liable of copyright infringement by an Antiguan court in 2014 and fined $11,000. Myce speculates that AACS-LA and other licensing bodies may have used the adverse judgment to pressure other firms to stop doing business with SlySoft.