Hi-def hacking war heats up

The fight to salvage the copy protection system defending high-definition videos has heated up. This week, a grass roots movement comprised of video hackers, opponents of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and consumer-rights advocates started spreading throughout the Internet a 128-bit code key critical to the decryption of HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The key -- called a Processing Key -- was found in February through reverse engineering the data left in memory by a specific HD DVD player and can be used to play back or copy the video content protected by the encryption mechanism, known as the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), used by both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.