Blu-ray encryption scheme revolves around half life of films

Call it the Harold and Kumar effect.

Now that Blu-ray has won the format war, the public and security industry will get a chance to see how well the novel encryption scheme that Blu-ray publishers and manufacturers works.

What makes the strategy somewhat novel is that is relies as much on consumer tastes and behavior as it does on technology, according to Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist of Cryptography Research, which helped devise the strategy.

Since some of you might now be gearing up to buy a Blu-ray player, here's how it works. Studios will hire software developers to encrypt their latest releases. Someday, hackers will find a flaw, crack the encryption and post the movie on the Internet. Once the movie is out in the wild "there is no way to make it unplayable," Kocher said. "You can't put the genie back in the bottle."