Hollywood told us that the days of piracy are over. HD-DVD and BluRay would usher in a new era of piracy control, bringing along with it unbreakable DRM that would “help keep honest people honest,” as if suddenly, if DRM vanished, we’d all turn into a bunch of pirates who never paid for anything again. Avast, me hearties! Indeed.

Fast forward to February 11, when some guys on the doom9 forums came upon a solution. A user that goes by the handle “arnezami” thought he had found the processing key, a value used by all (as far as anyone can tell) HD-DVD discs out there (and possibly some BluRay Discs as well). What does the key allow you to do? Decrypt the content on the disc. So? Now you can enjoy your HD content as you choose, not as the publisher chooses for you. You want to show it on your Mac? Go for it. Transcode for your iPod? Have fun. Play your content back on a non-HDMI HDTV? Great.

Nice job guys. It’s about time Hollywood was sent a message about fair use. Recognize that I’m not advocating piracy in any way here.

Currently playing in iTunes: Young Americans by David Bowie