A new 16-digit code that can crack anti-piracy technology on high-definition DVDs and Blue Ray discs has fuelled an online war that has Hollywood movie studios sweating.
In February, hackers obtained a decryption key that enables copying of the protected discs.
The code has since been published and widely distributed on the Internet.
"These discs are protected against piracy with software that comes on the discs, and that software is all based on a complicated mathematical code," Kris Abel, CTV's technology expert, told Canada AM on Monday.
"The problem is, it's illegal to post that code," Abel said referring to intellectual property rights under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the U.S. Canada's Copyright Act falls under a different jurisdiction and a separate set of parameters from those in the U.S.
"It's a key that can be used to circumvent the technology used to protect these discs."
A series of cease-and-desist letters from lawyers for Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator demanded the code be removed from websites in April.
The AACSLA includes such industry heavy-hitters as IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Sony and movie studios like Disney and Warner Brothers.
The uproar began when the popular website Digg, a news site where users vote on the top stories of the day, began taking down pages that its members had highlighted were carrying the code.
Digg's users responded by posting even more websites with the code, prompting the site to side with its users.
Websites and databases that did remove the code were seen as pandering to corporate interests and facilitating online censorship.
"It just clicked: this unique situation where you have thousands, in fact hundreds of thousands, who decided to rebel and say we want this code out there and we're going to publish it anyway that we can," Abel said.
The online war has since caused a pop culture phenomenon where enthusiasts have found creative ways to post the information without getting caught.
"It's everywhere. Someone has Photoshopped this photo so it looks like it's a fortune cookie, but is actually the code," Abel said.
"Someone actually put this on the wall of their university and people are spray-painting this. You can buy T-shirts and mugs with the code plastered on it."
The phenomenon speaks to larger issues on how difficult it is to police the Internet. With thousands of people willingly breaking the law, movie studios would have no realistic way to pursue a legal remedy.
"How do you police this situation? And what does that represent for law enforcement on the Internet? Very big questions for which there are no answers," Abel said.
The companies that are losing out have debated whether to set up an anti-piracy system.
Under this system, users must connect their DVD players to their computers to download a patch that would allow the discs to play.
"But that creates a cycle," Abel said.
"Nobody wants to have to connect their DVD player to the Internet just to watch movies that were already playable before hand."
