The newest discovery, revealed on the Doom9 Forum by someone with the screen name "Arnezami," involves the location of the "processing key" vital to the high-definition disc antipiracy system. This could give computer cryptography buffs a relatively easy way to find the so-called "volume keys" needed to make movie copies.

To do that, they can use a program called HDDVDBackup developed by another Doom9 Forum member -- named "Muslix64" -- and revealed in late December. Even without Arnezami's discovery, users have been finding, and publicizing, the volume keys for about a month, resulting in the copying of several high-def films including "King Kong," "Mission: Impossible" and "Jarhead," according to published reports.