The next-generation of high definition movie formats each come with high-tech anti-piracy hardware, just another brilliant strategy by the movie industry. And now a hacker called Muslix64 claims to have developed a way to pirate HD DVDs. Muslix64 posted a video of his work on YouTube promising more to details to come. So while his method is unconfirmed. The threat is enough to show hackers are trying to hack the “unhackable.” This summer, Pan and Scan reported a rudimentary way to copy high-def discs by click Print Screen thousands of times (methods were developed to automate this).

Between the media companies, consumers, and hackers, the biggest winners are going to be hackers. Whether DVDs, video games, or corporate firewalls, hackers keep find ways in. I hate how hackers have created a world of fear over the internet, scared to open emails, visit websites, or download anything. But in this case, I blame media companies who pack copyright protection software that inevitably fails, but only ends up hurting consumers. A few reports are claiming high-def players stop working because of the copyright protections. Sony’s music CD snafu saw discs making computers more susceptible to spyware.

This next failed attempt to foil hackers only hurts consumers. Hackers, given enough time, will crack anything they put their mind to. And piracy, for all the harmless file-sharing, is actually a multi-billion dollar industry, giving people a major financial incentive to crack copyright protection software. And they have the help of people who just want a free Bittorrent download.